Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Now on to More Pressing Matters....



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2017 Cat Lovers Hop
Oct. 23-28, 2017
Right here at Her Peaceful Garden.
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displaying my 2017 Cat Lovers Badge.
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Hi, Friends.......

I am back with one more card for the wonderful Winnie & Walter September Color Combo Challenge and this time I actually stuck with the theme as well as the colors!! :)




Each year our church hosts a Friendly Fall Festival of activities spanning several days in October which includes a Saturday of apple picking and cider pressing. So.Much.Fun.!!!! This takes place at the nearby farm of friends who are cattle ranchers and honey producers. They graciously let us use their roomy honey house for the pressing along with other fun games and activities for the kids. 

It is a fabulous community event where everyone brings apples from their own trees or picked from the "wild" trees that abound up here in our little community.  Then we all help with the processing.  Once done, we all go home with some DELICIOUS cider. Oh, my....so wonderfully sweet!! As you can imagine, this is at no small inconvenience to these generous farmers....so I always try to make an apple-themed thank you card of some kind as a token of my appreciation.
Interesting note about apples: What residents here call "wild" apples are actually ones planted by homesteaders, beginning when this area was opened up in the late 1800s. Everyone wanted apple trees on their homestead and a big apple dryer was erected for community use. The dryer is no longer standing (only the huge round foundation is still visible) but many of the apple trees persist and are still bearing, though not as vigorously as in their prime.
Apples are amazingly long-lived and can bear in some capacity for their entire 100+ years until they finally succumb to disease, fire, or removal. Our UK friends are probably aware of the Original Bramley tree (the originator of the Bramley variety, a cooking apple which is popular in England and Wales, but not well-known in the USA). It is over 200 years old and, astonishingly, is still bearing....although sadly it has contracted a fungus that will kill it at some point. Fortunately, plant scientists have successfuly taken samples and propagated it.


Okay.....enough about apples......


My background was made using Walnut Stain crystals. These are like Brushos, but coarser crystals rather than a powder. I stamped my sentiment and tree directly on the background and then "dry smooshed" Distress Ink for the red leaves. Dry smooshing is my own term for applying the distress ink to my acrylic block and NOT misting before smooshing onto my paper. After doing that several times, I misted the remnants on my block very, very slightly and smooshed some more. The main thing was that I did not want a watery, muddy look as the red and brown got activated together!!
Supplies used include:
Winnie & Walter - Essentials: Katharine Cutaways die set
Winnie & Walter - Kindness with Evelin T Designs stamp set
Versafine Ink in Black Onyx
Distress Ink in Candied Apple
Ranger - TH Distress Marker in Walnut Stain
Imagine Crafts Walnut Ink Crystals
Tonic Studios - Nuvo Crystal Drops
Ribbon from my stash

Hope you enjoyed reading about apples and seeing my card! Thank you so much for stopping by and leaving your sweet comments.

<3
Janis


Thank you for the honor of entering this card in the following challenges:
1. Winnie & Walter September Color Combo Challenge
2. Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - A Walk on the Dark Side
3. Penny Black at All Sorts - Close to Nature
4. Dare2BArtzy 0ctober Challenge - Fall Colors
5. Ribbon Girls October Card Challenge - Any Card
6. House that Stamps Built DCC104 - Count Your Blessings
7. SSS Work-It Wednesday August/September - Use a Stamp
8. Word Art Wednesday Weeks #302-303 - Anything Goes Family Friendly
9. DL.ART October Linky Challenge - Anything Goes
10. DL.ART Thankful Thursday Challenge #213 - Halloween or Thank You
11. HeARTful Stamping Challenge Oct.1-8 - Anything Goes + a stamp
12. CARDZ-TV Anything Goes #14
13. Cardz-TV Anything Goes Challenge #15
14. Just Keep on Creating - October Anything Goes Link Up

11 comments:

  1. What an interesting post! Loved reading about your Fall Festival, and learning some apple facts! Your card is amazing! So glad you shared it! Thanks for joining us at The House that Stamps Built!

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  2. What a fun card I love all the dots on the tree and the colors are fab!! I love it.
    Thank you for entering the DL.ART THANKFUL THURSDAY challenge #213 “Halloween” or Thank you” for this challenge. Have a blessed day
    DIANA L.

    DL.ART
    DL.ART DESIGN TEAM MEMBER
    http://dianamlarson.blogspot.com
    http://dianamlarson.ctmh.com

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  3. What a fun event!! We have a yearly birthday party that we attend that also includes mass amounts of apple pressing for yummy cider!! It is fun for the kids and fresh cider is just awesome! And so is your card! Love the fun shape of the tree and how you added the "apples". Thanks for playing with The House That Stamps Built.

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  4. I absolutely love this card, such a beautiful image and love the colours and all the detail. I have spent this morning being very angry with everything going on in the world. Your card has made me realize there are still awesome people around and I am listening to "Man in the mirror" by Michael Jackson so all is good, a really beautiful card.http://justkeeponcreating.blogspot.com.au/

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  5. Oh my! This is stunning! What a clever idea of making this tree and placing apples. I love the background a lot and with vibrant red looks amazing. Thank you for Walking On The Dark Side with Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge!

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  6. Loved reading your post about the festival and the history of the apples. Then I read about your own "technique" with dry smooching and now I am going to have to try it. Thank you for joining us at The House that Stamps Built for this challenge.

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  7. A really nice card, thank you so much for joining us this month at Penny Black and More challenge in our "Close to Nature" theme!

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  8. Beautiful card, I really love the sentiment! Thank you for joining us at DL.ART Challenges!

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  9. What an artsy card! the red crystal drops really give it punch.Thank you for playing in the HeARTful Stamping Challenge!

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  10. Beautiful card and fantastic background, glad you joined us at The House that Stamps Built!

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THANK YOU so much for taking the time to leave a comment. Your kind words encourage me so very much!!!

Have a lovely day!
<3
Janis