Papertrey Ink September Blog Hop Challenge

It's late September, and in my little neck of the woods, it means it's time for the Bloomsburg Fair.  I have loved Fair week ever since I was a little girl and now that we're back in the area, I can enjoy it as an adult.  It is the week that officially ushers in the start of Autumn, with crisp air, delicious food and great exhibits.  Well, in 2017, I guess we'll have to settle for 2 out of 3.  I cannot believe the temperature has been well above average, reaching as high as 91 degrees!  Today, I guess I will don my shorts and a tank top and head down for a Hewlett's hot sausage sandwich.  Totally worth venturing out in the heat.  We'll walk through the buildings today, too, which will be nice and cool.

One of the things I love about the Fair is walking through the Horticultural Building.  This year's theme is Hooked on Books, which features a boat floating on a sea of hydrangeas.  In keeping with the floral theme, I was excited to see the inspiration this month is this lovely print by Christa Pierce of Christa Pierce Paper Goods.

This print really captures the spirit of the season.  I see this little fellow taking that bit of color into the colder weather, giving light and warmth to the darkness.  Fall, to me, screams out "mums!" and there is a lovely stamp in PTI's Year of Flowers Collection I've been wanting to play with.  This, to me, seemed like a perfect opportunity to try my hand at masking stamped images.  I have only ever masked tiny areas and wanted to push myself to try something on a grander scale.  It was easier than I feared it would be, I am pleased to say.  This turned out just as I was seeing it in my head.

  

The verse I chose to accompany the flowers is from PTI's Choose Joy.  Getting back to my simpler style, this is a one layer card stamped in black on white.  I did decide to give it some weight by adding a layer of craft foam and attaching it all to a black card base. I played around with both pencils and markers and decided that with all of the black, it would look best colored with alcohol markers.  Someday, I will have to take a marker class.  Everything I learned about coloring I learned in Kindergarten! 

Stamps used this month:

Both currently available in the Papertrey Ink store

Be sure to check out all the creative entries in the hop this month HERE.

Thanks for stopping by!