It's the 25th of the month, so it must be the monthly Papertrey Ink Blog Hop, one of my favorite challenges. This month's inspiration piece features a chalkboard sign, pumpkins, and gourds among other fall motifs.
The main focus is the chalkboard sign, and it's been a long time since I played around with the chalkboard look on a card. I started there and once the background was "chalked," embossed a sentiment from "Giving Thanks," a new to me Papertrey set. I absolutely love the fonts in this sentiment; it's one of the reasons I added the set to a recent order. I attached a "Pierced Frame" in black to the chalkboard and tucked a pumpkin and two gourds from "Simply Gourd-eous" within the frame. Although I used the coordinating dies to cut the pumpkin and gourds I ended up fussy cutting them to eliminate the thin white borders from the dies.
I originally thought I'd mount both pieces on a top-folding black card, but when I looked again at the inspiration piece, I decided to use Scarlet Jewel cardstock to mimic the frame on the chalkboard in the photo. It's hard to see, but I used my Chai distress cube to distress the Scarlet Jewel cardstock much like the frame in the photo.
The pumpkin and gourds needed a little more definition so I added some Polychromos colored pencils to areas to enhance them a bit. Off to PTI to see what others made of this photo.
I'm also entering this in the current Time Out Challenge. It's a quote this time about gratitude; perfect timing.
