I don't know what it's like where you live, but I have to tell you that it is full-on FALL here in the Midwest. The temps are dropping and the birds are getting all crazy.....I don't know if they're gearing up for their big flight South or what. I can't believe the number of gorgeous blue jays with the brightest blue feathers I've seen today, not to mention about a gazillion of the.....how shall I say.....less attractive birds too! Hee. Poor dears. They were in rare form this morning acting like crazy people.....er......birds......outside. They put on quite a show for me. And the squirrels.....well the squirrels were out and about too, darting here and there, carrying big nuts in their mouths, hunting for the perfect place to bury them for the winter. They were making me laugh....one little guy (squirrel) would get ready to get down to business digging a hole for that nut when one of the crazy birds would buzz past him really fast and scare him, and he'd quickly decide that THAT hole wasn't gonna be any good so he'd run on to find a better place to hide his winter treasure! This went on for seeeeveral minutes! Silly squirrel! It was seriously a little eerie, how many critters were running (and flying) around our yard this morning, but from the safety of THIS side of the windows, it was quite entertaining! Haha!
All right, so about today's card. I've had some more Hero Arts stamps that I just couldn't wait to play with so I busted them out today. See that background stamp up there -- it's their Clouds wood-mounted stamp. And see the scalloped circle? That's their Scalloped Circle wood-mounted stamp. (Catchy names, right??) Hee! And of course, those leaves (and berries) are from their clear stamp set called Scattered Leaves and I snuck in a sentiment from Papertrey's Mega Mixed Messages. That set has a sentiment for just about any occasion!
I was in the mood for some greens today so I paired Papertrey's ripe avocado and new leaf with Stampin' Up!'s taken with teal card stock. Then I threw in some of my favorite raspberry fizz from Papertrey and voila! Cheerful, colorful and FUN!
Also, a few of you have asked about the photo in my new blog header. I took that photo when we were in Italy last year (on our Mediterranean cruise). It's one of the 5 villages in Cinque Terre but I don't remember the name of that particular village. Gosh, but it was gorgeous there. If you ever get the opportunity to see Cinque Terre, I HIIIIIIGHLY recommend it. We had the option that particular day to go see the Leaning Tower of Pisa OR to go see the villages of Cinque Terre. I'd had a photo of Cinque Terre from an old calendar hanging on my wall in my office for several years so when we realized that the cruise we were going on would allow us the option to see Cinque Terre, I was SO excited! To see this magical place in real life was just too exciting for words! I didn't know anything about Cinque Terre at the time, but I knew that I'd LOOOVE to see that place that I'd stared at on my wall for so long. We were so torn though, when we realized that we'd have to choose between Cinque Terre and Pisa. However, we found out soon after, that the Pisa excursions on the cruise were all booked up, so that made our decision a cinch! Ha.
That day ended up being the most amazing day......we got to travel between the 5 villages (which you can only get to by foot -- no vehicle roads between them) and also got to take a boat ride along the coast, so we could view all 5 villages from the ocean. So cool! My favorite part of the whole day though, was having lunch with Bartley at a little sidewalk cafe in one of those villages. WOW. SO relaxing and refreshing and thrilling. Such a beautiful place. You can see more photos from our day in Cinque Terre here!
All righty, Crew, I've got more design work to get done. It's almost time to start working on the next Papertrey release so I've got to get my ducks in a row before then. :)Have a fabulous Wednesday!
{Good Luck supplies}
Paper: new leaf, ripe avocado, raspberry fizz, SU! taken with teal
Stamps: Hero Arts - Clouds, Scalloped Circle, Scattered Leaves; PTI Mega Mixed Messages
Ink: raspberry fizz, ripe avocado, VersaMark Dazzle
Other: ripe avocado saddle stitch ribbon, Kaiser rhinestones
