Missing You

How is everybody on this fine Tuesday? We had a great weekend with perfect weather. On Saturday morning, we headed out for our family's annual apple-picking trip to a local historic farm. We picked a 1/2 bushel of Macintosh apples, my hubby's favorite apple. He certainly loves his "apple a day," always packing one in his lunch for at work. Anyway, it was a fun, relaxing outing. The kids are old pros at apple-picking now, and we all love doing it! It takes no time at all to fill our half bushel. After tromping through the orchard, we headed to the farm stand to buy a half dozen of apple cider donuts and a gallon of apple cider--it's all a {yummy} part of our tradition!! In all it was a fabulous trip, perfect for recharging our batteries!! And, oh, the memories we made as well. :)

Do you remember me telling about my dear friend who had to move away over the summer? I sent her this card to greet her at her new house. Yesterday I got a note from her letting me know that not only is the card I made for her now framed and hanging in the living room at their new place, the colors I used in the card inspired the all-new decorating scheme they used for their living room!! Talk about happy mail!! :D That made my day.

Ever since I opened yesterday's mail, my friend has been on my mind, so I had to make her a card to let her know how much I miss her.

My color scheme was inspired by Flourishes' Fall Fashion Challenge to make a project with one or more of these hot fall colors for 2011: The bamboo, emberglow, and cedar colors really caught my eye, so I used all three, with a splash of coffee liqueur.

I have also been intrigued by the card sketches featured in the current crop of challenges at the Moxie Fab World. I don't make shaped cards very often, mostly because they are so hard to make without dies (which, if you've been reading my blog for a while, you know I don't have). But the MFW shaped sketch challenge really caught my eye, and--having recently found my missing mojo--I was really feeling up to, well, . . . a challenge!! Working without dies meant that I wasn't tied to set die sizes, so I decided to make this big to really show off the pretty patterned paper I used. The card is massive (or seemingly so to me, at least) at 6.25" in diameter. And because I made a shaped card, I was able to play along with today's new Flourishes Timeless Tuesday challenge #135, which is to make--what else?--a shaped card!!

The scallops are 1" circles that I punched from cardstock and adhered to the back of my main circular panel. That pretty edge stitching is also functional--it's keeping my scallops from falling off!!

Finally, this card also gave me a chance to use some fabulous goodies that I won from two terrific bloggers over the summer. Both prize packages arrived just before we left on our month-long vacation, which was torture because I knew I'd have to wait a while before I could use any of these!! The Flourishes Country Charm Labels stamps and BasicGrey Nook and Pantry patterned papers came from the lovely and talented Christine Okken. That beautiful two-tone sheer May Arts ribbon came from the sweet and equally talented Jessi Fogan. Jessi sent a whole box of beautifully wrapped goodies, each parcel tied up in a length of lovely May Arts ribbon. You can't let something like that go to waste! So each and every bit was rescued to be recycled on future projects. And because I have recycled some of my saved ribbon on this card, I am entering it in Lynn's Recycling Challenge over at Do More With Less.

Thanks for stopping by to check out what's making me happy today!
Emily

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Flourishes Country Charm Labels, Flourishes Tag Lines
Paper: SU Dusty Durango textured CS, SU Crushed Curry textured CS, patterned papers from BasicGrey's Nook and Pantry collection
Ink: Versafine vintage sepia
Accessories: SU 1" circle punch, Creative Memories circle cutting templates, foam tape, sewing machine, May Arts sheer ribbon, grass green rhinestones from Queen & Co., Tiny Twinkles from Taylored Expressions, Bow Easy
Techniques: shaped card, machine stitching