It's the Great Pumpkin!

Yesterday afternoon, when I stepped outside to walk to my daughter's school, it really hit me that it's fall. While it's been "hot" here, the sun was lower in the sky and it reminded me how quickly the days are shortening. Yikes! I love fall, though, and I'm excited for Halloween.

I've had an idea floating around in my head for a Halloween card, and I love how it worked out. In fact, I liked it so much, I made three variations! Here's the layered version:

While there were several steps for making the pumpkins, they were pretty easy to make. I used my dwindling stash of Amy Tangerine and AC Nightfall papers and die cut ovals with my Nesties. I played around with the layers and then stitched them onto the card base.

For the background, I stamped the Dash Pattern background stamp from Hero Arts with Versamark. I used PTI's Edgers #1 to make the bottom strip and then adhered the strip of paper from Studio Calico's Autumn Press at the bottom. I made the sentiment in Word and printed it onto the patterned paper. I totally dig how the brown and black look together...it's not a color combo I ever use, but I'll be using it again.

I'm linking this card up to the E.A.D. Designs "Be Thankful Color Challenge" that I saw on Amy's blog. There are other colors peeking through, so I hope it counts. If you get a chance, check out the challenge!

I had extra pumpkin layers, so I made more cards. Here's the CAS version:

On the base, I printed the sentiment (Two Peas' Journaling but expanded), but otherwise used the same Hero Arts stamp and patterned papers. The orange base paper is also from Autumn Press, and the twine is May Arts (love their natural twine!).

Lastly, here's a small card (4 1/4" square). I went WAY out of my comfort zone (more like out the door and down the street):

I started with the same base but then painted the edges, used several Distress Inks to provide depth, and (shriek!) distressed the edges lightly. To me, the edges looks like fog--I love how it turned out! Like the CAS card, I made the stem of the pumpkin out of brown cardstock.

Here's a close-up of the layers on one of the pumpkins:

The layered pumpkins have so much texture (and movement). I thought I'd link up to the Moxie Fab World Textured to Perfection Challenge (especially the last card with the painted and inked edges).


I wanted to pass along that Print Candee reached 1000 fans on Facebook, and to celebrate, they are having an amazing giveaway on their blog. They are giving away a $100 Amazon and $50 Michael's gift certificates (wow!). Go to THIS post to check out how to leave a comment to enter, and while you're there, check out the blog!

Thanks for looking! I hope you're having a good week!