Golden Leaves of Autumn

Greetings, crafty compadres :)  Let's all take a minute to celebrate the fact that it's the first of October, which is quite possibly my favorite month of the year.  And if I'd thought this through a little better, I would have made a Halloween card for today, but I also love fall in general so we'll just go with that.

I was a little late getting on the Sheltering Tree bandwagon when it came out, but I have enjoyed creating with it this year.  This time I stamped the tree trunk in Soft Suede and the ground swoosh with Crumb Cake (I did the ground swoosh several times, right side up and upside down, stamping off some to add a little depth).  And then I used gold EP for the leaves.

Of course gold EP is hard to photograph, especially given the deplorable light conditions in my craft cave.  I really need to get another light to put in there, even the Ott Lite on my craft table isn't enough, and it's been so overcast and rainy this week that even the windows aren't helping any to bring in some light.  But anyway, I do like how this simple little card turned out, and it was inspired by the latest challenge from Global Design Project:

CASE-ing a card is fun, you just look at the inspiration card and choose what makes you happy.  So I used the same basic layout and I used the same colors, but traded in the wreath for the tree and I used gold EP instead of the gold glimmer paper heart and gold cord.  I tend to notice color first (and last, and always) so color is usually what draws me to a card.  Usually I'm not an all-neutrals kinda stamper, but I did like how the inspiration card looked so I thought I'd give it a whirl.  After all, challenges are all about pushing you out of your comfort zone a bit and making you try new things.  Sometimes you end up with something that you like a lot, and it seems like it doesn't too often go the other direction ;)  Although I have had one or two cards that I thought I should just light on fire...

That's it for me today, peeps.  Come back tomorrow for the Friday Flashback, and in the meantime, happy stampin'!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sheltering Tree
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Versamark
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Gold EP, Dimensionals