I finally finished canning the last of our apples this week, saving out only enough to make a pie for company Saturday night. You know I can't can all of those apples and not get a blog post out of them, so. . . how about an apple basket card tonight?
I started with the apple basket image from the Just Rite Autumn Blessings set, which fits the 2-1/4" x 3-1/16" oval stamper. I stamped it in Memento Rich Cocoa ink and colored it with the Copic markers pictured below. Since I used so many markers, I labeled them in categories.
After coloring the apples in yellows and reds, I chose papers from a Cosmo Cricket Early Girl Mini Deck--perfect with these colors. The next thing I tried was something I don't usually do, making ruffles, which is Cath Edvalson's Moxie Fab challenge for this week--fun challenge! The natural twill is 1-1/2" wide, gathered with a double row of stitching close to the top. (In this short a distance, you could probably get by with a single row of stitches, but the point of a double row is that the gather is usually flatter, AND you don't lose the whole piece if you break a thread while pulling. (Don't ask me how I know about that. . .) To get a nice full ruffle, you will want two to three times the length that you intend to cover. Mine is closer to twice the length of the card front because I knew I had a piece to layer on top of it and didn't want it to be super-full under my image.
I used some Scor Tape to hold the ruffle down firmly, and I wrapped its edges around the back of the card, leaving some fullness on the sides.
I used a Spellbinders Classic Oval die to cut out my focal image, and a Labels Five die to mat the focal image. Buttons are PaperTrey Ink Vintage Buttons.
And like a proud Mama, I have to share one picture with the four varieties of canned apples: from left to right, we have cranberry applesauce, apple pie filling, cinnamon spice applesauce (hiding behind my card), and plain applesauce. Here is a link to the applesauce recipe that I used as a base recipe. (I wasn't entirely pleased with the apple pie filling recipe, so I don't think I'll share it. For the cranberry applesauce, I just cooked a recipe of whole cranberry sauce and beat it smooth in my blender before adding it to the hot applesauce and canning according to the Ball site.)
