Welcome Beautiful Fall

This past week was a hectic one. I was busy taking Melissa to see this fabulous concert:

Then, a day later, I was busy preparing this:

And the day after that, I was up early to do this:

I did, however, manage to squeeze in a night of scrapping before Thanksgiving week. Here's my layout:

This layout is pretty clean and simple for me which, I guess, depicts the frame of mind I was in when I created it. Kind of like the calm before the storm, so to speak. Under the pictures, I stamped a line of text using the Technique Tuesday Studio AE stamps from October and the limited edition Tim Holtz distress inks. Love them both!

I was scrapping at a friend's house and realized I didn't bring any letters to create a title. Oh, what's a scrapper to do? Luckily, I had a bin of Fall goodies with me so I paired the "Welcome" and "Beautiful" die cut pieces from the Little Yellow Bicycle collection with the "Fall" Flair from American Crafts' Nightfall Collection. Here's a closer look:

I kept the journaling simple by combining a rub-on with a hand-written note.

The most important thing I learned from doing this layout is that rub-ons do come off. I had added some rub-ons of brown leaves to the green paper and immediately felt that they drew the eye away from my pictures. When I googled how to remove them, I learned that adhering scotch tape to the top of the rub-on (repeating as needed) did the trick. Imagine that! You just have to love Google!

Supplies:

Patterned Paper and Die Cuts: Little Yellow Bicycle (Hello Fall!);

Stamps: Technique Tuesday (Studio AE -- Give Thanks by Ali Edwards): Papertrey Ink (Label Basics);

Ink: Tim Holtz Autumn Seasonal Distress Ink (Gathered Twigs, Seedless Preserves); Stampin' Up! (Dusty Durango);

Embellishments: American Crafts Flair (Nightfall); Me & My Big Ideas rub-ons;

Tools: Papertrey Ink Die (Label Basics); Spellbinders Nestabilities 9Scallop Rectangles Large); Fiskars Border punch (Scalloped Sentiment); White Signo Gel Pen.

Tuesday Trigger: Fall is in the Bag

I have been missing in action for the last few weeks. My mother (who is 80) fell and fractured her hip. She needed surgery and then spent some time in rehab. Frequent trips to the hospital left little time for blogging. Thankfully she is home now and doing really well. Unfortunately, she won't be able to drive for a while so I will be pitching in by taking her to physical therapy, grocery shopping and doctor's appointments. The doctor has assured us that she will be dancing in no time which may not be such a good thing since she broke her hip while doing the Electric Slide at the community center of her Senior apartment complex. I kid you not!

Anyway, it felt great to get the creative juices flowing again this week after not scrapping for almost a month. So, when I spotted this week's Tuesday Trigger photo just as I was finishing up a layout using Little Yellow Bicycle's "Hello Fall!" collection, I knew I had to play along. Instead of putting my scraps away, I decided to make a card or two for Thanksgiving. Here's the trigger photo:

And here are the two cards I made. First, the clean and simple design:

And next, one with a stamped background:

Both cards feature Papertrey Ink's Wreath for all Seasons and Technique Tuesday's Studio AE -- Give Thanks by Ali Edwards stamp sets. The background stamp on the second card was created with Hero Arts Large Plaid Pattern background stamp.

Let me know which design you like best!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Stampin' UP! (Very Vanilla); Papertrey Ink (Chocolate Brown);

Patterned Paper: Little Yellow Bicycle (Hello Fall!)

Stamps: Papertrey Ink (Wreath for All Season); Technique Tuesday (Studio AE -- Give Thanks by Ali Edwards); Hero Arts (Large Plaid Pattern);

Ink: Stampin' Up! (Dusty Durango; Tim Holtz Distress (Gathered Twigs);

Tools: Spellbinders Nestabilities (Classic Circle; Classic Scalloped Circle Large); EK Success Corner Rounder.