Give Thanks for PPA236

I love the colors of Fall.  The perfect combination of rich yellows, deep reds and robust greens takes me back to a cool, crisp day in my childhood.  The aroma of cinnamon in the air, I can see Mom in her long, white apron, turning toward me with a piping hot pie she made with apples from the tree out back.  This is what Fall is all about.

Was that my memory?  Did we even have an apple tree?  I don’t think we did.  In fact, I know we didn’t.  Where did that come from?  Sometimes I worry about myself.  Anyway, as soon as I finished this card with Cajun Craze, Delightful Dijon and Old Olive, I could smell cinnamon.  Here’s my card:

Thankful Forest Friends, Brushstrokes, Stampin' Up!, Brian King, PPA266

And here’s this week’s challenge banner for the PPA color combination that that inspired my card:

PPA266

Tips, Tricks and Reminders

  • Thankful Forest Friends.  Have you seen this adorable stamp set in the Holiday Catalog?  The bear, the rabbit, the fox.  They all want to let you know how thankful they are for you – and they do so in a beautiful Fall landscape.  While I love the animals, though, I love the typeset of the words even more – and you already know I love good “thank you” sentiments.  If this isn’t already on your list for Fall, take another look:

    Thankful Forest Friends stamp set, Stampin' Up!

    Thankful Forest Friends stamp set, Stampin’ Up!

  • Masked Clean.  It’s rare that I make a card with this much white – the base and the central panel.  So clean.  I love the “give thanks” font, but I wanted to keep the already-streamlined card super-clean, so I masked out the fun leaves on top and on bottom of the sentiment.  I simply placed tape over the images I didn’t want to emboss.  I inked the stamp with Versamark and the pulled the tape off before stamping the image on a piece of Cajun Craze.  I added White Embossing Powder, heat embossed it and then cropped the whole thing with an Ovals Collection Framelit.  If you want to see my video about isolating images on a stamp, click here.
  • Perfectly Centered and Offset.    I used three Stampin’ Write Markers to ink up my Brushstrokes background stamp (as you can probably tell, I created a single stripe of Cajun Craze and two stripes of the other colors).  These stripes are perfectly centered on the focal panel of the card.  Rather than center the oval sentiment along the stripes, I offset the oval and positioned it in along the bottom of the stripes.  Still the card is balanced.

Stamp Sets:  Thankful Forest Friends, Brushstrokes  Papers:  Thick Whisper White, Cajun Craze, Whisper White  Inks:  Stampin’ Write Markers (Delightful Dijon, Cajun Craze, Old Olive)  Accessories:  Ovals Collection Framelits, Project Life Corner Rounder, Stampin’ Dimensionals

I hope you’ll pop over to the Pals Paper Arts Challenge see the cards by the design team members and to play along with this week’s challenge.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Brian

Shop Now button

 

 

 

 

 

 

28 Comments

  1. I love cards with lots of white space! Nicely done!

  2. I see apple pie coming to your door! 🙂

  3. Too funny…you had me at long white apron! Great card for those memories though and now you have me thinking apple pie. 🙂 Thanks for joining the challenge today!

  4. Um . . . Norman Rockwell maybe? Love this card. I must remember to use markers when I don’t have a specific card stock color. Love the layout also. Enjoy your pie!
    🙂

  5. Beautiful, CAS but colorful Brian.
    Thank you for sharing.

  6. Oh course, I love all the white and those fun stripes are the perfect way to play with this color challenge!

  7. My husband and I had a great laugh as I read your colorful childhood memory aloud over our morning coffee. I too could visualize the apple pie and smell the cinnamon in the air. Thanks for the smiles and great card. Great inspiration for me to get going on my PPA project .

  8. Brian, I love the simplicity of this card and you showed me a way to use a stamp set I wasn’t too sure about. Maybe I should just call you Mr. Enabler

  9. Love the card Brian AND, if you come to my house the end of October you can smell the apple pies a baking in the oven. I make six every fall. 🙂

  10. Love the stripes! Clean card with great style!!

  11. Another perfect card! So, this may be my fave!! I just love the stripes and all the white space. Clean and perfect. It’s funny how art can bring images to the mind even if its someone else’s memory. The mom and her pie are perfect visual of these fall colors

  12. Ohhhhh, I was right there in that wonderful scene in your kitchen and boom, you knocked me right out with the realization that you had no apple tree, ha ha!

    Great quasi memory and beautiful autumn card. Now I have apple pie on my mind.

  13. 😀 hahaha
    An ‘enhanched’ childhood memory.
    Lovely card

  14. Apple pies, made by your amazing Mumma, from trees that don’t exsist in your backyard?! Just like my childhood memories of kangaroos jumping around the yard with baby koalas in their pouch, oh the memories!
    Lovely card, as always. Love the video. xo

  15. Oh, Brian. You don’t remember the apple tree? The only thing incorrect about your memory is my apron was short. Those were the good ole days. Fall was on the way and it was time to start thinking about Thanksgiving, your birthday and Christmas. It was all magical!

  16. Great card, but now I’m craving apple pie. Thanks?

  17. Ahhhh I can smell those Fall fragrances ! I really like this background stamp and you used it just great . Now do a card with that adorable bear from the other set ! Love these colors and love this time of the year !

  18. Lovely card Brian. Great idea using the Brushstrokes stamp – rather than doing it by hand like I did! I’m just off to make my card now.

  19. Clean and simple! Is there a prize for noticing your PPA number is just a little off? 😉 Thanks for playing, teammate!

  20. Ah yes…the days of apple pie, pumpkin pie and MINCEMEAT PIE! ICK! My Mom used to make mincemeat pie and I hated it. Tasted like dirt to me, along with beets which she loved. But, I ADORE this card. Only you Brian, would take something so simple and make it classy. Love the design and the colors and your embossing. Perfect! Hi Brian’s Mom! I love that you comment as well! 🙂

  21. LOVE your card, Brian…..and the memory….who cares – remember what you like…..LOL…..beautiful colors and design to salute the upcoming FALL season – my most favorite of all! Just want it to get here…soooo tired of the hot weather….at least we don’t have the humidity here in CA that some of you do!

  22. I hope you write a book some day, Brian, because I would certainly read it. You are so descriptive and have an impeccable imagination!

  23. Brian, Brian, Brian. I do LOVE that brain of yours. I wish I could have one like that. Every lovely and effective fall card!

  24. Hi Brian,

    I love a lot of your cards and this is one of them. I am trying to steal your layout but not able to work out the dimentions. Actually there are a few other cards you share here that I really like to borrow the layout. I just can’t seem to find the paper sizes. Would you be able to let me know the dimensions of this card?

    Thanks a lot in advance.

    Vanessa

    • Vanessa, The base is a standard card base – the panel on top is 5″ x 3″. I don’t give dimensions because mine are often cut away at until I get the exact size that looks right to me. Explore the paper and enjoy playing with it.

      • Hi Brian,

        Thank you very much for this. It is the best way to have fun with the cards isn’t it? Explore it as you go:)

        Cheers
        Vanessa

  25. Another terrific card Brian, I think I caught a whiff of cinnamon just looking at it! 🙂

Leave a Reply to Dawn Tidd Cancel reply