Happy Fall (and Friday) with Festive Frills!

I love wreathes for every season, and when I saw Close To My Heart's new "Festive Frills" set among the Christmas stamps in its latest catalog, I saw a wreath stamp that I thought could be used beyond (or in this case, before) the holiday season.

In creating my fall card, I met with a temporary dilemma when I wanted my berries to be a different color than the leaves and branches and coloring this particular stamp with markers didn't seem to be a very appealing option. So, I punched a dozen or so tiny Goldrush circles with the small hole punch on my Crop-O-Dile, and my initial plan was to glue the tiny circles/berries to the image that I had stamped with Brown Bag ink. While I don't mind the piddly stuff, I quickly deemed that was taking it a bit far. Then came the "light bulb" moment, which was to use acrylic paint and the "dip dot" paint technique to create berries. I used to paint a lot of decorative wood. If you dip the wrong end of a paintbrush into acrylic paint, it will produce a nice uniform dot, thus "dip dot." Once my dots/berries were dry, I also used my Brown Bag marker to accent a few of the leaves to create a little more color variation. I 'm pretty pleased with the results and will use this same technique, using red paint, to create berries on the green Christmas wreathes I create with this set. Now that I've remembered it, I'll probably use this technique for other card accents, too. It's always fun when something old becomes new again. I kept the rest of the card simple with a "Happy Fall" sentiment and pretty brown satin bow.

Materials & Tools: Colonial White and Autumn Terracotta cardstock; Abundance paper packet; Brown Bag ink pad; Brown Bag marker; Festive Frills and Stampendous Holiday Words stamp sets; Brown satin ribbon from Walmart; Autumn Terracotta mini brads; Stampin' Up Word Window punch; Distressor Tool; Glue Dots.

Friends, it appears that I have been cursed with regard to my ability to get a decent night's rest. At 2:30 a.m. this morning, an alarm sounded in the building. The building we manage is for seniors and people with disabilities, and each unit is equipped with two pull cords, one in the bedroom and another in the bathroom, to be used in the event of an emergency. While the building is only 11 years old, this system, in my opinion, is archaic. The alarms ring in the hallways of all three floors. The sound is like a school bell, only 20 times louder. Marv, of course, was out driving truck, so as the caretaker on site, I had to access the situation, call the police, and deal with the 15 to 20 other tenants who had been jarred from their sleep and were wondering what the heck was going on. Because Marv normally deals with these things, I didn't know how to disable the alarm so it blared for a good 20 minutes before the law enforcement officers arrived and disabled it. While the situation was not life-threatening, it required an ambulance, which, of course, I waited for, all the while trying to chase everyone else back to bed. The entire fiasco lasted for approximately an hour with it taking another hour to get back to sleep.

Surprisingly, I had a productive enough day at work, but I'm wiped out tonight. With regard to the weekend, I'll think about when I get up tomorrow. All I know is that I'm going to have to tip-toe around sleeping Marv. I wish for you a wonderful weekend, and I'll talk to you again tomorrow. Take care . . .