JUST BREATHE

 Fall is almost upon us. I heard two flocks of geese honking their way overhead today. A sure sign. The leaves on the trees are slowly changing their colors to become vibrant and radiant in hue. This is one of the best parts about living in Wisconsin.

I had gotten my hands on a die set by Paper Smooches of four little leaves awhile ago. With the oncoming autumn, I decided I would make a miniature fall scene using these dies. I dug through all my tiny scraps of leftover Designer Series Paper, selecting the ones that depict the beautiful season the best. I moved my Big Shot to a table in front of me so I could sit and cut out piles of autumn leaves. And what a good way to use up the tiny scraps of DSP that I just did not have the heart to throw out!

On Monday, my Stamp-In girls had enjoyed a project that utilized the Shaving Cream Technique. All the supplies were still out, including a small pile of precut white cardstock. 

Since I didn't have to drag out all the supplies, I decided to use this technique to create a fall sky and proceeded to select a blue/turquoise combo of retired Stampin' Up! reinkers for my creation. 

I had a blast and probably made close to 20 sky pieces. Some were delightful, some not so much. Just like life, eh? A few, although quite beautiful, did not portray an autumn sky just as I'd wanted them to.

Sifting through my dried sky pieces, I came upon the one that I thought would be the perfect choice as the backdrop to my precious autumn leaves. You can see it below. 

The photo below also shows a bit of the cool paper I found to surround my finished leaf portrait. At first glance, you would think it might be a piece of really rough cork. I'm not sure where I got the paper, but I've had it forever, just saving it for the right project. You understand, don't you?

Anyway, it truly IS paper, obviously a very thick, dimensional handmade paper. I thought it complemented my autumn tableau admirably.

My pretty leaves obviously needed a tree, right? I used the branch from the Seasonal Layers Thinlits, found on page 216 of the big catalog to die cut the branch from Early Espresso cardstock. After adhering the branch against the sky, I then added my leaves to it.

 Sometimes life can get to be a bit overwhelming or frustrating or . . . whatever. So I decided to add the sentiment, "just breathe" from the coordinating stamp set, Colorful Seasons on page 147. I stamped it in Early Espresso.

Just another close-up of the pretty leaves upon the fall sky:

Initially I had intended that this would, of course, be made into a card. But the longer I worked on it, the more I decided that . . . no, not a card. Maybe something I could frame?

I have enough new frames in my house that I could probably open my own framing shop. So, I went downstairs to my stash, and shopped for the perfect frame. After I had decided to make it into a non-card, I proceeded to make the finished size a standard 5" x 7", knowing full well that I would be able to find something in my personal frame store that would work well with this image.

I managed to dig up a beautiful elegant frame that consisted of a nice combination of fall-ish colors.

And, here it is in its new home:

Does that ever happen to you? You have a good idea for a card and you set out to turn your idea into reality. As you are working on your "card", you see that it just needs to be framed instead. A card would just not suffice. So, framed piece it evolves into. Ah. Just breathe.

Autumn

Smiles.