Fall Scene - leaf pile!

Hi! Has fall hit 'your neck of the woods' yet? Our backyard is quickly becoming covered in pine needles - those are so much fun to try to rake up ;o)

Here's a card to get you in the mood if your leaves are still green! I used a little scene stamp called Shy Bear from I Brake for Stamps , and used a single word from the phrase "The path to a friends house is never long", drawing in the swirl with a finepoint marker. If you have never seen this Shy Bear line, go take a minute to look - the link above should get you right to the page... There is an image for every occasion - on a bike, peeking in a bassinet, checking out the birdhouse, etc. - I just love them, they are so sweet but not in a corny way. And there is enough substance to each image you really don't need anything more than maybe a few words and embellishments to make a great card!

(click on photo for more detail)

card measures 5 1/2" square

I started this card by stamping the image on cream cardstock using Staz-On Timber Brown. I then used the Technique Junkies Marker Water Coloring technique from the June/July 08 issue to color the scene, using a white gel pen on the bear's eyes. I used the M. Zindorf method of covering the image completely with a Versamark pen and embossing powder, allowing me to sponge in colors over the top to fill in the background. The moon was created by punching a circle from a Post-it note, and sponging over it. I swiped a sponge covered with Stampin' Up!'s More Mustard over it to tone the brightness down a little. I edged some of the tree with white gel pen for highlights, which helped to tie in the areas on the teeny branches where my Versamark pen went over the lines a bit, creating white areas ;o)

To put the card together I ran a piece of rust brown cardstock thru the Cuttlebug, using the Distressed Stripes folder, and mounted that over a scrap of Faux Handmade Paper I had left over (see the Technique Junkies June/July 08 issue for this one as well - you will love it!) Not sure who made these metal leaf brads but now I wish I had purchased another pack - the backs are really flexible and very thin so your layers don't bulk up. I 'needed' to fill in some of that light space at the bottom (which is Stampin' Up!'s Natural cardstock) so I markered in just the word from the stamp listed above, and then drew in the dots for movement.

Thanks for looking, and happy fall!