Happy Fall Y'all!

I plan to send out Halloween cards on Friday. I have a handful of family members who don't do Halloween so I made fall greeting cards for them.

I decided back in January of this year ... this was the year I would rid myself of scraps... and in essence dwindle my hoarded stash ... boy howdy! Did that EVER limit my creativity. :-\ But I shared with you how last week, I cannot even remember the name of the woman who made me feel I could not rid myself of scraps the easy way ... via trash can ... and how I decided I was not allowing other crafters dictate what went on in my craft room... or my head. So I did toss out some scraps... I even meant to take a pic to show you... but I was afraid they might look appealing and I would reach in and pull them out... so just believe me. :) It was a handful of scraps... but it was trashed! :-\ I am still feeling somewhat guilty about it. All I keep thinking is RECYCLING! :-\

Anyway with original objective in mind... to use my hoarded stash... I was thinking about all the wonderful ideas over on Pinterest and my obsessive pinning. :-\ All mostly for ideas... but you know how I shared I planned to use all of my hoarded supplies. Well, it's kind of hard to use the new ideas with old supplies... especially since I cannot go out and buy new stuff right now ... and I would like to think for the next three years I can refrain from buying too much more. I know I cannot refrain from buying completely... just hope I don't go overboard. :)

So as I was thinking about the fall greeting cards, I went through my hoarded stash and jiminy cricket and boy howdy! I sure do have a hoarded stash! :-| I pulled some stuff together and made four cards and here you find me. I want to share what I came up with...

When I finished this one... I kinda thought "Christmas"... but I still think it conveys a warm, autumn greeting as well. The little plastic leaves and metal sentiment are all from my long hoarded stash. I actually tore the yellow card stock in half to add the printed paper between the two pieces because I wanted to use the paper. I think it is pretty and I really wanted to share it! :) The two bottom framed printed images are from a long defunct company called Leaving Prints. This was the first monthly scrapping club I subscribed to. Sadly they went out of business about a year after I started using them. I still have their newsletters but these are mostly for scrapping or altering. The cutouts did not from framed. I matted them onto matching card stock.

I decided to use the Leaving Prints autumn cutouts on all of these cards. On the three on this card, I outlined a little with my Zig glue and sprinkled with Art Glitter fall collection in matching colors. The metal tag is from my long hoarded stash... I think I remember it came from Making Memories... the ribbon is from Michael's long time ago because it also was hoarded. :( Why did I ever want to buy things just to keep them? :-\ I don't understand this concept now.

The sentiment on the middle of the page was a bit of an accident... I wanted to use eyelets on the next card but I didn't want to ruin the paper because it was the last thing I added and I needed to know what size of setting to use. I used my Crop-a-dile but I no longer have the instructions and I always have such a dilemma trying to figure out which of the four settings to use on the eyelets. So I had this scrap piece of brown card stock. I tried it on one end and it came out a little smooched. So I tried it on the other end with a different size and it worked. Then... I found myself unable to rid myself of this scrap. Because although the eyelet is a little smooched... it still looked pretty! :) So I hand wrote "happy fall" on the front and used it on this card. The pumpkin on top is a paper piecing I made long ago when I discovered paper piecing came in patterns... and went to town with it. ;) lol

This one is my favorite. The pumpkins on the bottom are card stock stickers from Miss Elizabeth at Dollar Tree! Yup! Twine is from Raisin Boat. I used a rhinestone to keep the bow from coming unraveled because it seemed to want to! I wasn't having it! The rhinestone was from a stash I bought off of a gal on Facebook. As you can see... up on the left hand side are the three eyelets from Oriental Trading Company I wanted to use. The Leaving Prints cutout is on foam tape so it kind of pops out at you.

I have a niece who asked me where did I buy cheap embellishments. I answered Oriental Trading Company (OTC). She made a disgusted face and replied I don't like their cheap stuff. :-\ What was the point of the question? But I do like OTC because I find that they have good prices on embellishments and adhesives. Now this is not the case if you shop at Walmart. I don't do Wally World. :-\ I like to buy the sets at OTC because these all come with such a variety... brads, shaped eyelets and buttons plus more. The brads are such a good price for the buck and they last forever and a day. :) These were not hoarded! So when I make this point, keep this in mind. I used these with abandon because there were so many of them. My stash is now starting to dwindle and I plan to buy more again. The last time I purchased sets from OTC was in the fall of 2006. But I did buy several and am just now starting to run out. Some colors more than others... like the primary colors... secondary colors were harder for me to use and so I still have plenty of those. I plan to ask another niece to go in on the purchase with me. If we lump our money together we could buy more and get free shipping. I hate paying for shipping. We can split the sets in half and still have plenty and more of everything for each of us. I cannot find the link for free shipping but I've bought before and I am pretty sure if you spend over $70 you get free shipping. I hope you get the point... OTC... good prices on embellishments. :)