Happy October!

Good morning, and welcome to the first of 4 posts about to clog up your reader, lol! It's been nearly a month since my last unscheduled post - I can't believe it. It's not that I haven't been MAKING cards since I got home, but I've just taken so long to get back into the swing of things. Crazy. Flipping the calendar over to October this morning felt a little surreal - I honestly feel like I missed September entirely!

Anyhow, here's the first of a whole bunch of challenge cards. This one is for the current little red wagon challenge, to be inspired by this amazing front porch:

For a little perspective, I should include a picture of what mine looks like right now...but I'm not going to, because I can't stand to look at it. After the sewage drama this summer, and having the yard dug up...the ground has re-settled with all the recent rain. The steps are now tilted, and separated from the porch by about 6 inches, and the soil level next to the house has dropped about a foot. The walkway looks like a giant threw down some blocks mid-tantrum. Not sure how exactly we're going to fix that up without getting the backhoe back - and not sure how the steps would survive being moved again, since quite a few chunks of concrete came off last time. Ahem. I digress!

Here's my card - I was inspired by the leaf wreaths - try to say that three times fast!

Supplies: leaf punch from Martha Stewart;
Spiced Marmalade distress ink;
oak & maple leaf stamps from All Night Media;
standard small circle Nesties

The paper I punched the leaves from is some shaving-cream marbled paper I'd made during the summer, using Spiced Marmalade & Fired Brick distress re-inkers. This edge of the paper had more white in it than I wanted for the leaves, so after punching them out I swiped each one across the Spiced Marmalade pad to orange them up. I used a Nestie circle to make a few pencil marks for stamping the leaves in a circular pattern - I first stamped the four maple leaves, in roughly cardinal directions (one each at north, south, etc), and then the oak leaves in the spaces left between. 

The wreath form was made by using two Nesties to cut out a ring from cardstock. I popped the ring up using foam tape, and then glued the leaves directly to the ring. I filled in the wreath the same way I stamped the wreath below - first gluing down the cardinal points, and then filling in the spaces between. I tend to 'eyeball' the distances, but I find using cardinal points to start really simplifies things. 

See you shortly with another autumn creation!

xoxo,

Jessi