The rush of Fall and Pumpkin Donuts

The official start of Autumn is almost here, my all time favorite season! Of course, I love all the typical things about it-the cooler weather, the beautiful colors, and all the wonderful foods coming from the garden; along with the anticipation of the festivals, craft fairs and approaching Holidays.

However, one of my most favorite things about Fall is the pumpkin donuts from our local orchard. These are not the typical donuts with the orange colored faux flavored icing you find in the grocery store or local donut shops. No, no, my friends, these are made with the real goods-pumpkins right out of their fields. They are a light airy cake style donut with a wonderfully sweet glaze. And man are they addictive!! Yum...I may need to run out to the orchard after work!

Sorry I can't share with you, but here is something sweet to feast your eyes upon:

This little beauty is made using envelopes. The majority of the supplies are from the new Spice Cake suite in the Holiday Mini. This was a lot of fun to make and pretty easy too. I have several packs of fabric from SU, but this is the first time I have actually used any of it. I will definitely be breaking into those other packs now. :)

I am planning on making several types of these for some upcoming craft fairs. I think they will make wonderful gifts for friends and family.

The "tabs" for the inserts are made from strips of the fabric.

I thought the tags would be a great place for family members and friends to write down what they are thankful for, or a special memory.

The fabulous tutorial for this mini scrapbook can be found here. Sarah's tutorial is very easy to follow. Check out some of the other free project tutorials she offers too. I will definitely be CASEing more from her. :)

Stamps: Gently Falling, Tiny Tags, Holiday Best(retired)
Paper: Spice Cake DSP, Baja Breeze, Early Espresso, More Mustard, Old Olive, Very Vanilla
Ink: Baja Breeze, Early Espresso, More Mustard, Old Olive
Misc.: Spice Cake Designer Buttons, Spice Cake Designer Fabric, Very Vanilla Envelopes, Linen Thread, Hemp Twine, Scallop circle, 2.5" circle, 1.25" circle, and Jewelry Tag punches, Baja Breeze Seam Binding, Mini Vintage Tags, Manilla tags, Retired Designer Buttons, Crop-A-Dile, Distress Tool (Cutter Kit), Sponges


Make it a great day!

Simplifying-Will it make you happy?

I have read several articles lately about simplifying one's life. This one in the NY Times, particularly caught my attention. Ms. Strobel and her husband weeded out their belongings until they were at 100 items each.

Could you live, and be happy, with only 100 belongings to your name? Before you say, "oh sure, I could do that easily, that's a lot of items". Think about this, a pair of shoes counts as one item, a book is one item, a car-one item, a telephone-one item, a pan-one item. Now, is your answer the same? :)

There are many things in my life I would love to simplify, and sure, I have TONS of items that I could give up without really missing them after a few days, but I don't think I could be happy with only 100 items to my name. My craft table alone probably has at least that amount of items on it right now!

In the spirit of simplifying though, I decided to try my hand at some simple cards this weekend. I always admire those that can make really elegant simple cards, like Susan Raihale on her blog Simplicity.

I have the tendency to add more, more and still more. Vintage and collage are my favorite styles after all. Anyway, here is my attempt at some simple cards.The mottled effect on the Presto Pattern DSP was just from playing around. I first spritzed it with some Razzleberry shimmer mist I made from ink, shimmer paint and rubbing alcohol. Then I sponged on some Perfect Plum ink over the piece, finally I spritzed the pieces with plain water. I have found when using the shimmer paints and ink and then spritzing with water, you get this wonderful mottled effect. The mat is the new Concord Crush In-color card stock.

The butterflies were given some color with Concord Crush and sponge daubers. The sponging is a little sloppy, I think for that size item a smaller dauber or a Q-tip might have been a better choice. They were then sprayed with Vanilla Shimmer Mist as a finishing touch.

Stamps: Afterthoughts (Hostess-Level 1), Occasional Quotes (Hostess-Level 3)
Paper: Whisper White textured and smooth, Concord Crush, Presto Patterns DSP

Ink: Concord Crush, Perfect Plum, Rich Razzleberry
Accessories: Platinum Shimmer Paint, Vanilla Shimmer Mist, Beautiful Wings Embosslit, Big Shot, Sponge Daubers, Dimensionals

Enjoy!

Oasis Shimmer

I really like the versatility of this layout and have used it on several cards in the past (which have not been posted...yet). But if you look at the star card in my Versatile Class post you can see that I used the same layout for a different look.

For this card I used the new Island Oasis DSP and the Square Lattice Sizzix Embossing Folder on the Turquoise mat. I usually shy away from the bold-bright color schemes, but I really like this new paper. Very summery! :)

The large and small rose red flowers, as well as the small orange flower, are cut out from one of the DSP designs. The other two flowers were stamped and all were spritzed with the Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz. That stuff is awesome! It gives just the right touch of glitz without going over the top. I also spritzed the sentiment and added a couple of rhinestone brads for a touch more sparkle.

This card would be great to send just to brighten someone's day, as a birthday card, or even as an invitation to a tropical themed party, just by changing the sentiment.

Stamps: Tropical Party, Embrace Life (retiring)
Paper: Island Oasis DSP, Old Olive, Tempting Turquoise, So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie
Ink: Tempting Turquoise, So Saffron
Accessories: Square Lattice Embossing Folder, Big Shot, Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz, Old Olive 5/8" Grosgrain, Modern Label Punch, Circle Ice Rhinestone Brads, Dimensionals

Have a great day!