Fall

Covered Bridge Visiting & Doodlewashing

/ Jodi / 47 Comments

covered bridge watercolor doodlewash

This weekend, hubby and I went to a Covered Bridge Festival.  There were ten park festival locations centered around  ten different covered bridges where they had a variety of handmade arts and crafts booths, food, historic re-enactments, demonstrations and live bands.

It was fun to stroll around the festivities and capture some photos of the bridges.  We only made it to two, because we really didn’t decide to go or head out until mid-afternoon, but we enjoyed what we did see, and then ended the day with a nice dinner out.

The next day I decided to try to “doodlewash” one.  My blogging buddy, Charlie at Doodlewash.com has stirred my creative desire to play around with this whimsical art style combining doodling and watercoloring.

I struggle with the doodling/drawing part, and then I totally overworked the washing/watercoloring part of this piece, but since I spent an hour and a half doing it, I am sharing anyway.  (Chalk it up to one for the archives.  Hopefully one to look back on to gauge improvement!)

Here is the photo I took that I used for my reference.   It was such a sweet little bridge in a quaint community park.

covered bridge

And then, with some paint still in the palette and the urge to do something else, I decided to recreate a version of the DSP (designer series paper) I used in yesterday’s card post and made this piece below that I can use in a future card or project.  It was fun to mix and splash and see how the colors dried.   Loving the Autumn tones that remind me of the gorgeous weather we’ve been having these past few days!

color wash swash

Happy Monday all!  Hope you have a great week!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

Warm Thoughts of Fall Card

/ Jodi / 44 Comments

PP263 Fall CAS Challenge

This Wednesday, September 23, 2015 is the first day of Fall – the Autumnal Equinox – here in Mars and the rest of us in the Northern Hemisphere, so Happy Fall Y’All!

And this week’s Paper Player’s Challenge (#PP263) is to “Create a Fall Scene.”

PP263 Fall CAS Challenge 2

I’ve been having warm thoughts of Fall as this past week has to have been the most gorgeous ever that I can recall in recent history.  Seriously amazing here in Mars!  Crisp, cool mornings and evenings, pure blue sunny, sunshiney days, and NO humidity!  The birds seem happy, Charlie is in his glory, the windows and doors are wide open, and I even got hubby to sit out on the deck with me a little bit!

I am cherishing these glorious Fall moments!

For my Paper Players Design Team Inspiration card this week, I used:

Hope my paper crafting friends will join our challenge, and those who aren’t just enjoy the warm thoughts I send with this card and post!

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful

/ Jodi / 35 Comments

Fall Leave Doodlewash Watercolor Card 091315

Like the beautiful leaves of Autumn…

each unique

individual

and beautiful in their own way…

Fall Leaf Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful Watercolor Card

Be your own kind of Beautiful.

Wouldn’t want you any other way!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

Why?

/ Jodi / 43 Comments

monochrome black and white leaves trees

Why do I get a little knot in my stomach
when the days grow a bit shorter,
the air a bit crisper,
the breeze a bit lighter.

It is gentle
and beautiful
and comfortable.

But my heart remembers
summer ending,
school beginning,
Autumn breezes bringing school buses
and schedules and new beginnings.

I recall old endings…

and I am melancholy.

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Four Seasons of Sheltering Tree

/ Jodi / 24 Comments

Sheltering Tree Summer Notecard Brusho

It’s Sunday, and that means it’s time for another Guest Designer Inspiration Card for The Paper Players Challenge.

This week’s theme challenge is “The Great Outdoors” for PP252.

pp252
When I think of outdoors, I think of trees.  And when I think of trees, I adore how different they look in all four seasons (at least where we live here in Mars).

Sheltering Tree Fall Notecard Brusho

So I heat embossed an “empty” tree from the StampinUp Sheltering Tree Stamp Set with Early Espresso (Dark Brown) embossing powder onto four pieces of watercolor paper.

Sheltering Tree Winter Notecard Brusho

I then broke out the Brusho Crystal Colours again and sprinkled and spritzed different colors onto each tree to represent, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring.

Sheltering Tree Spring Notecard Brusho

I backed each tree with a piece of Early Espresso card stock and then adhered to Very Vanilla for the card base.

I stamped some fun sentiments from the Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler to make them into basic notecards.

Doesn’t it make a fun set?

Hope you are enjoying whatever season you are in!

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Soon will be Thanksgiving Day….

/ Jodi / 25 Comments

fall candle fireI thought I’d share a a bit of Thanksgiving/Fall decor around the house before things get Christmas’d up around here soon.

thanksgiving fall decor 1For the dining room table, I used the box Matt made for centerpieces for his and Jackie’s wedding this summer, and I filled it with squashes and pumpkin gourds.

thanksgiving fall decor 2To accent, I used pint-sized wide mouth mason jars (purchased for Colleen’s shower) and filled them with fresh cranberries and popping corn and then added a votive candle, a rafia bow and some tiny hemlock pine cones Tracy helped me pick on our walk Saturday morning.

thanksgiving fall decor 3You see – you don’t have to spend a lot of money to decorate, and it’s even more fun when the things you use have special memories or are acquired during special times with friends.

thanksgiving fall decor 4This “Bountiful harvest” sign sits in the antique jelly cupboard our friends Jim and Mary GAVE US 🙂 that Jim found in the trash that someone was throwing away.  He started fixing it up, Marty finished it, and he “loaned” it to us until he decides they have a place for it (fingers crossed that never happens – as it is our ongoing joke!)

thanksgiving fall decor 5A few craft store finds sit around on the sofa table behind the couch.

thanksgiving fall decor 6I love this little muslin pumpkin.

thanksgiving fall decor 7My friend, Rose, gave me this wooden pumpkin candle holder at least 15 years ago, and I bring it out every Fall.  Thanks Rose!

thanksgiving fall decor 8When Pap died a couple years ago, my sweet cousins, Dawn and Jen, along with Aunt Gwen and Uncle Frank sent this beautiful Fall silk arrangement, so it goes on the kitchen table for the Fall.

thanksgiving fall decor 11I found this little coffee table centerpiece while shopping with Dawn on a vacation in Myrtle beach.

thanksgiving fall decor 10I’m pretty sure I got this wreath for the front door at the same shop in Myrtle Beach.

joAnd a couple of signs hang at the back door entrance, where most of our family and friends enter.  🙂

thanksgiving fall decor 12

I am enjoying the beauty and heart of Thanksgiving this week and so looking forward to sharing it with family and friends.  We’re going to have a houseful – just the way I love it!

But then again……….  a little touch of Christmas couldn’t hurt – right?! 🙂

I couldn’t wait to put out this little gem I got on our Shaker Woods trip this Fall (and Colleen bought one too!   I wonder if hers is out yet??)

jodj

…Gobble Gobble Gobble!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Acorn Cookies

/ Jodi / 15 Comments

I couldn’t resist trying this cute idea for a fun little Thanksgiving treat.

chocolate peanut butter acorns 2Aren’t they so stinking cute?!

chocolate peanut butter acorns 3

So easy to make…

chocolate peanut butter acornsand even more sweet to eat!

chocolate peanut butter acorns 1

I simply used chocolate icing in a tube to “glue” Nutter Butter Bites to Hershey’s Kisses and topped with a Nestle Mini Morsel Chocolate Chip.

(I’ve also seen these done with mini Nilla Wafers if you’re not a big peanut butter fan, but I think these are way yummier! 🙂 )

Voila! A fun, easy, and sweet treat!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

One Word Photo Challenge: Clear

/ Jodi / 6 Comments

Clear droplets of water slowly drip off in morning Fall dew.

clear

Six Words

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looking up at life in between wwMc

The #Writing101 Group I was in had such an engaging group of people from all over the world, and I was sorry to see it end.  I really enjoyed the challenges and felt they stretched me as a “writer.”

So I was super excited that several of the members took the initiative to carry on and continue our team support by forming a new group to offer writing challenges called #TheWritersHub.  Our current challenge is to write a six-word story.

I combined mine with this photo I took on my Walk with My Camera today.  My story sums up my life right now.

Looking up
at
life in between

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Abandoned Home: wwMc12

/ Jodi / 3 Comments

shaker 7

My friend Janet spotted and called this abandoned home amongst the brilliant Fall foliage to my attention on our walk at #ChristmasintheWoods yesterday.  More to come later on our fun day, but thought I’d share this for my daily #wwMc (Walk with My Camera) photo today.  Happy Sunday!