CA, The Golden State

Cozy Fall Vibes

Hi everyone! It’s hot and summery here but the page I bring you this week has all the cozy autumn vibes. This picture was taken in the Mammoth Lakes area in California several years ago. My husband wanted to photograph the autumn leaves and I came along. It was the perfect time of year where it was chilly but not freezing and the colors were at their peak. To be clear, we absolutely did not camp, despite what my background paper says. I am not a fan or camping, even in the car since a never get more than a couple hours of sleep because I am always so uncomfortable. I am so envious of people that can get a good night’s sleep anywhere. I can’t even sleep on an airplane and wish I could. Traveling to different time zones would be so much easier! After a day of seeing all the pretty leaves, we promptly went back to our hotel with hot water and comfy beds.

I started with some fun black and white camping design paper from Wild Whisper Designs. This paper has more of a glossy finish than most papers. I had briefly considered using some watercolors to color in a few of the designs but decided against it since I didn’t know how the paper would fare. I did however end up using my Yasutomo shimmer watercolors to add some golden spatters instead.

I used some dark wood grain paper from The Paper Studio’s Dendrology stack and cut it down to the width of my photo. The paper in this stack is very thin and the stack is so huge. I’m not sure if I will ever use it all up! Fortunately, wood grain is pretty versatile and something I use a fair amount, especially since I have a lot of photos that were taken outdoors. I added in all kinds of outdoorsy embellishments like some vellum leaf stickers and California puffy stickers, both by Jolee’s Boutique. I finally used up the puffy stickers by turning them into a title. They have been in my stash for years and I’m sure were discontinued a long time ago. It feels good to get them out of my stash! I also added a few neutral pieces from Tim Holtz’s Field Notes Ephemera pack. I bought two of these by accident so I’m sure I’ll have these until the end of time, but again, they are pretty versatile and look great on my numerous forest-themed pages. Some decorative brads by Simple Stories were both the perfect color and theme for this page. I love when that happens! Lastly, I added in some mini compasses I bought in the jewlery section at Hobby Lobby since they were on clearance. I doubt they actually point North, but they do really move around!

This page was created for Case File 412 over at Color, Story, Inspiration challenges. I loved the colors and knew it would be perfect for all the fall pictures I had. I also hadn’t cracked open the Tinbit Traveler paper pack after buying it months ago (who else is guilty of this?) and this would give me a good reason to. I used the following “Evidence” prompts:

Plaid or Grid Pattern
Solids
Wood or Wood Grain
Camping-Themed Items
Signpost
Bear
Lantern
Compass
Mix Different Alphas

This page was also made using Becky Fleck sketch 333 at A Cherry on Top crafts. I changed a lot of things up like using one photo instead of two, substituting numbers for leaves and replacing the subtitle with a big bear. By the way, I did not make this bear. I have no idea who did or how I acquired him. I just know he’s been in my stash for about 20 years (not an exaggeration) and I never really thought I would actually use him. Here we are with this mystery bear now living happily on this page and he looks adorable.

That’s all for this week! Maybe next time I will make something more in line with summer? Who knows though. My crafting muse does what she wants so it could be summer Halloween or cats. Whatever. Either way, I hope you’ll join me soon both here and at my YouTube and Instagram accounts!