French Foliage – So Thankful

Hi Everyone.  Happy Thursday night.  It is… I am pleased to tell you… almost the weekend!  Also, you only have a couple more days to play along with the Paper Players and our inspiration challenge.  It's really simple….  pop along to ThePaperPlayers challenge blog and join us – we would love to see what you have created.

Before I get started tonight – shout out to Beth!  I got a parcel from Beth today with her cards for the Operation Write Home Holiday card drive.  Woooo hooooo…. WTG Beth.  She created  Chanukah (Hanukkah) cards, Spanish Christmas cards as well as her regular Christmas cards.  They are all fabulous and very creative cards.  In fact her Chanukah cards are some of the best I have seen!  Beth, I know there are going to be some very happy service men/women!  So, thank you VERY MUCH!

Tonight's card features the fabulous French Foliage set from the new holiday mini!  I love this set and feel that is very appropriate as I know the leaves are going to start turning soon.  I don't know about you…but I love the fall.  Here in Minnesota where we live, there are many trees around us and on some years, Mother Nature's fall show is a masterpiece.  One of the things I really appreciate about living in Minnesota is the very definite 4 seasons.  I look forward to the cycles of the year and the transition from one season to the next.  In fact, the last couple of days have been so cool weather-wise, that I have even been thinking about winter!

I used the clean and simple fall to layout again for this card.  You have seen me use a similar layout many times before, but it really is a fabulous layout.  You can see my other card made using this same layout at this post.

Card recipe:

• Card stock: Early Espresso, More Mustard, Riding Hood Red, Very Vanilla
• Inks: Crumb Cake, More Mustard, Riding Hood Red
• Accessories:  Early Espresso satin ribbon, retired rub on (sentiment), Neutrals buttons, twine
• Tools:  Scallop Border Punch

Card instructions:

• Cut card base to 11 x 4 1/4 – score and fold at 5 1/2.  Fold on the top
• Cut Very Vanilla to 4 x 4 1/4 – stamp leaves randomly using More Mustard, Crumb Cake and Riding Hood Red.  (I used only one Riding Hood Red as the color is much stronger than the others… plus I tend to see less of the very red leaves in our garden than the others! :-)..)
• Adhere to card base
• Cut Riding Hood Red Piece to 4 1/4 x 1/2
• Cut More Mustard to 2 1/8" x 4 1/4" and scallop the bottom border.  Adhere to Riding Hood Red piece
• Adhere over the card base.
• Wrap ribbon and tie a knot
• Take a piece of twine, thread it through one button hole – thread it underneath the knot and then thread the end through the other hole – tie.   Jaydee tip:  doing this, really helps to keep the button in place and just looks neater!
• Oh yeah…. adhere the sentiment 🙂

I love the simplicity of the layout and the colors.   The crumb cake adds an interesting element even though it is not a traditional fall color.  It reminds me of leaves as they start to decompose.

On a personal note:

I thought some of you might like to know that Prince Pipsqueak (or PP as Rach would call him) thinks he really has hit the jackpot…. and Rach…. we are keeping him only to socialize him!  He is slowly learning to play with the others without taking over the entire game.  He now waits his turn at the "da bird" toy and only occasionally jumps out of line!  He is also starting to understand the difference between a loving stroke and someone wanting to rough-house with him.  It's going to take a little while, but he seems to be a fast learner.   However, one thing he hasn't learned…. mmmmm…… when NOT to roll over.   I was on a conference call this afternoon and suddenly heard this THUMP!   Yep!  He had been lying on the edge of the couch, rolled over in his sleep and hit the floor before he woke up!  no…. nooo…… I really didn't laugh (…..errrr little white lie, my nose is growing longer!)  Actually it was very funny! 

Oh.. yeah!  whilst you are at it….. visit this post on Rach's site….. if anyone of you have ever seen a cat and a cardboard box… this post is for you

Trish, I can only imagine how difficult it is for you to write a comment.  Please dont feel that you have to…. we love it when you do…. but we are thinking about you and praying for you every day.

Thank you to all of you for your visit.  Your support and your comments mean a great deal to me.

I hope you all have a fabulous Friday

Hugs

Jaydee