Oops, I forgot my tree opener...

Disclaimer: the following story goes under the heading, "Kids say the darndest things." When we were in Ireland, we took a few day bus trips from Dublin to see Wicklow County (featured in many Hollywood movies, including Braveheart!) and parts north, including an ancient pre-Christian temple called Newgrange. Our tour of Wicklow County included gorgeous countryside with lots of thick hedgerows alongside the road ways. After several of these dense thickets, Piglet started saying, "trees open, trees open."

Needless to say, we were a little perplexed, until it occurred to me that he meant that he wanted to be able to see through the trees. When the hedgerows opened up to the fields, he would say with satisfaction, "trees open!" After a while (since he said this almost constantly), I started to respond to his request by saying that I had forgotten our tree opener, which my husband found hilarious. Ever since then, whenever Piglet asks for the trees to be opened, we respond with, "Oh, we forgot the tree opener AGAIN!" And we wonder why kids grow up thinking strange things.


(This goes hand in hand with my asking Piglet if he had an apple tree growing in his tummy after he ate several apples, core and all, handing us only the stem when he was finished).


Anyway, in keeping with my fall theme from my last post, I'm showing you the original cards I made with the leftover scraps from my Autumn Meadows dsp pack. I still have a few full sheets, but I tend to use as much of a sheet as I can. It pains me to throw cardstock away. The layout for the top card comes from my fellow Philly Inker, Ilina Crouse, but I changed the colors, stamp set, dsp, etc. to make the sketch my own.


Oh, and I promised a short explanation of the sponging from this post. I started with Naturals Ivory paper, and sponged More mustard in a circle in the middle of the leaf. Then I went around the edges with Cajun Craze, not covering the More Mustard entirely. Then I did the tips of the leaf with Chocolate Chip, not covering the Cajun Craze entirely. The panel directly behind the leaves was done in the same order, but the sponging was done on the diagonal, completely covering the cardstock with each layer. I only put Chocolate chip on the edges of the more Mustard mat behind the main panel. Clear as mud?