Pals Blog Hop – Fall Sunflowers

Welcome to the Stampin’ Pretty Pals’ Blog Hop! This month, the theme is “Sentiment as a focal point.” We really hope that you enjoy and will be inspired by them! As you hop from blog to blog, don’t forget to leave comments because we love hearing from you. You will find the lineup at the end of my post to help you “hop” along from Pal to Pal.

Here in Southern Arizona fall is more a state of mind than an actual season as we get it much later than most areas or not at all. We still love it though and have our fair share of fall traditions. One of those traditions for my family is heading to a local farm called Apple Annie’s where you get to pick your own vegetables, go on hayrides, picnic in the orchard and my personal favorite, walking amongst the giant sunflowers. Here is one of my favorite photos I took from last year’s visit.

Today’s Project

This hop is all about the sentiment! Happy Fall Y’all is one of my favorites and just makes me smile so I chose to start with it. Then I remembered that I had recently picked up a metal corrugated plaque from Dollar Tree, throw in some beautiful sunflowers from the Celebrate Sunflowers Stamp Set and Sunflower Dies and my project was under way. I love sunflowers! They represent a little piece of fall here in Southern Arizona and are just so big, bright and happy. After looking at the photo above I can see why I chose to do sunflowers too. Can you see the metal corrugated hay barn in the back? I didn’t even put two and two together until after I searched my photos from last year and uploaded it to this post. I love a happy coincidence!

Offset Sentiment

The sentiment was created with the Playful Alphabet Dies. I die cut two sets, one from Pool Party cardstock and the second from Soft Suede cardstock. To add a bit of a shadow and give the letters more depth I glued the Soft Suede set slightly offset behind the Pool Party set. These letters happened to fit perfectly in the corrugated grooves and are simply glued with Multipurpose Glue on the tops and bottoms.

Easy Coloring

The coloring on these sunflowers is super easy! You save a ton of coloring time by stamping them in Soft Suede on Kraft Paper. See how the Kraft Paper edges blend into the image rather than stand out? I used the Daffodil Delight and Early Espresso pencils from the Watercolor Pencils Assortment and the Crushed Curry pencil from the Watercolor Pencils Assortment 2. I started coloring the sunflower petals with the Crushed Curry pencil first near the bottoms toward the center. After that I colored each petal with the Daffodil Delight pencil in its entirety. I colored the center with the Early Espresso pencil and added some darker shading details to finish them.

More inspiration awaits, so use the lineup below to visit the rest of the Design Team. The Pals are excited to show you what they’ve created! Then, please mark your calendars for our next blog hop on October 13th. Our theme will be Fantastic Fun Folds and 3D Projects when participants showcase fun fold cards or 3D items that will be great for any occasion. Until then, have fun in your craft space.

Stampin’ Pretty Pals Blog Hop

1. Mary Fish at Stampin’ Pretty
2. Tricia Chuba at ButterDish Designs – YOU ARE HERE
3. Jackie Beers at Blue Line Stamping
4. Megan Cooper at Lazy Daze Stampin
5. Su Mohr at Aromas And Art
6. Debbie Mageed at Secrets to Stamping
7. Windy Ellard at Windy’s Wonderful Creations
8. Peggy Noe at Pretty Paper Cards
9. Mary Hanson at Up North Stampin’
10. Beth McCullough at Stamping Mom
11. Deb Walker at Deb Stamps Life
12. Karen Hallam at Karen’s Stamping Habit
13. Amanda Howard at Papercrafting With Amanda
14. Stesha Bloodhart at Stampin’ Hoot!
15. Rae Harper Burnet at Wild West Paper Arts
16. Melissa Seplowitz at The Stamping Ninja
17. Lori Pinto at LollyPop Paper and Ink
18. Pamela Sadler at Stampin Pink Rose
19. Lisa Ann Bernard at Queen B Creations
20. Lori Webb at Clever Copies
21. Renae Novak at Blessed By Cards
22. Ann Murray at Murray Stamps INK
23. Sue Jackson at Just Peachy Stamping
24. Jill Loveland at Simple Stamping
25. Kim Webb at Just Paper, LLC

Today’s Supply List:

The metal corrugated plaque is from Dollar Tree.