Nuts for Autumn!

Hooray! And not just for the pumpkin pie (remember Over The River and Through The Woods - last verse?)

Is Autumn your favorite season? Or are you already over the mentions of pumpkin spice and everything nice? With all of the social media posts, I feel for you if crunchy leaves and snuggly sweaters and apple cider donuts don't agree with you; it's going to be a long couple of months.

Sometime during late September, the wind changes and I can smell the sycamore leaves and bark. Their autumn coloring is a brilliant yellow; the leaves grow to six and seven inches broad. It is a massive tree that provides cool summer shade and then shakes off its yellow canopy and sheds its bark. What a magnificent tree. 

It's then that I am ready to bring out the Hall Autumn Leaf dishes to herald in the season.  It's a ritual, a family (mine) tradition. I am ready to think about chowder and soups, casseroles, apple butter and maple cream cookies. 

a bit of my Autumn Leaf collection

It's time to hit the road in search of flea markets and antique shows, hunting for treasure (perhaps another piece of Autumn Leaf). It's time for the leaf-peepers on the Blue Ridge Parkway. 

It's time for me to re-organize my stamp collection. I will pack away most of the spring and summer stamp sets and accessories, or at least clear them off the work tables. Out come the new fall and winter product featuring cute ghosts, playful penguins, prancing deer, scattered leaves, forests of pines, woodland cabins, and spools of elegant ribbons and trim. And I am re-invigorated. 

I have developed new classes to share and I am offering a new 12 Weeks of Christmas holiday email program, just for my email subscribers, like you!

Beginning next week you will receive weekly emails with holiday projects and instructions, so keep an eye out. These exclusive emails will be sent only to you. If you have friends that might enjoy them, please ask them to sign up for my newsletter  ~ it's right here on my blog. 

To all you Autumn Souls out there, Hooray! Shuffle through the leaves, bring out the plaid scarves, steep a pot of spiced tea, enjoy a pumpkin scone, celebrate the season.

Top card was created with Stampin' Up!'s Nuts About Squirrels, p. 49 in the Mini July - December 2021 Catalog.

Images from Stampin' Up!

Shop right here!

Let's stamp!

 

 Will Work for Chocolate

It's Labor Day and I am willing to labor for you, for free, or for chocolate.

Have you been to a thrift store or a flea market and seen wooden mounted stamp sets in a basket or bin for $3, or even less? You may have thought what a deal, but I don't know how to stamp, but what cute stamps ...

If you come across stamps that are cute, neat, or sweet but don't buy them because you've never stamped ~ buy them and I will teach you how to stamp, free! Seriously. I love teaching this craft.

These stamps are older Stampin' Up! sets that I have found online and in sale piles from other demonstrators. 

I bought the new born/nursery set for myself to use in my scrapbooks with pictures of my grandchildren. Speaking of labor! I was lucky enough to be close at hand when my four grandsons were born. I can remember those nights, the first cries announcing their arrivals. The labor corridors of one hospital were decorated with storks as directional signs! I needed that stork stamp. 

When my first daughter was born, I designed her birth announcements with a drawing of a pram, similar to the one in this set.  And when she had her first son I designed an announcement for me to send to my friends, using a pram again. So,  I needed that pram stamp.

I bought the cute Christmas stamp set as an inexpensive holiday project to introduce children to stamping. I happen to have it left over.

I think sometimes (speaking from experience) we buy craft kits and supplies thinking we can teach ourselves with the instructions provided, how hard could it be? Or, as we have all heard by now, check YouTube. Often we don't do either and that bag of craft goodness gets shoved to the back of the closet just to end up in the church bazaar in a few years. 

So, I am offering a free stamping lesson to anyone who would like to try it out; even if you tried stamping years ago and have done nothing with it since, I'll help you! 

My next class is on Monday, September 13 at 10 AM. You are welcome as long as there is room around the table, and if the class is full, we'll stamp later that afternoon at 2 PM. Or at ... my schedule is a bit flexible thanks to retirement. Contact me to make a reservation; make a reservation for two and bring along a friend.

I am currently working on fall cards because I love leaves and my favorite color is Autumn and there are many easy techniques to produce gorgeous designs. 

Of course, if you are one of my Stampin' Friends and have not already registered for Monday's class, please do. This is my favorite time of year for designing and creating cards.

I am including a shopping list of some of my favorite autumn stamp sets from the new July - December Mini Catalog. Take a look: 

https://www.stampinup.com/shared-lists/d0cb5d3d-c26a-4c29-b39f-eb1ce94f0393?

 

The entire catalog can also be seen from the website. just click on the Mini Catalog pic.

Let's stamp!