It's time for the Papertrey Ink August 2016 Blog Hop! Each month Papertrey Ink hosts a blog hop so that it's customers can share their creations using Papertrey Products with other like minded individuals. It's a chance to find other designers and inspiration. The photo on the left is the one that Nichole chose for inspiration this month. There are so many colors here; a creamy ivory, peach, coral, rust, burgundy, taupe, brown, gray and even black plus everything in between. Each of these colors looks good with the others and nothing seems out of place. The very definition of a neutral is that it matches well or blends with most other colors. That is certainly true in this image and is the reason that we can mix pops of bright color with our neutral of choice in our wardrobes.
These color tones make me think of fall with the more rustic hues and bright pops of color in there once in a while. Fall is my favorite time of year. It's like a cozy sweater that you can pull on to get comfortable. I have lived in and been to some places that have pretty spectacular fall views. There's others I would still love to see. Can you just imagine the beauty of the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC in the fall?
In March of my Sophomore year of high school we moved from a Kansas City Suburb to a small town in Northeast Kansas. Hiawatha is known as the City of Beautiful Maples and it really lives up to that name. They have some incredibly beautiful tree lined streets and some of the most gorgeous red maples I've ever seen are there. If I hadn't moved there I would never have met my husband. We got married there and our daughter was born there. We used to travel there every year in the fall so my husband could help his dad and brother with Harvest. It's twelve miles into Hiawatha from Powhattan, so I would always go take picture of the gorgeous red maples that you see in these photographs. All of the maples are beautiful, I just happen to be partial to Red Maples. Our yard here in Oklahoma has 2 Maples that have red and orange foliage. They are still young trees but we hope they grow into something equally spectacular. We lost a tree last year and one of the remaining ones is looking kind of sad but we're hoping it will hang on. Hiawatha is a very small town but nearly every single street in town is lined with beautiful Maples in every variety. Hiawatha also has the our nation's oldest Halloween Parade that has happened annually since 1914. Everyone gathers at the square in the afternoon (where there are more Maples) and parade around the block of streets that are around the courthouse. You'll see lots of young kids being pulled in their Radio Flyer Wagons. It's pretty cool and definitely nostalgic. This October will be the 102nd consecutive year for this parade. 
For today's card, I wanted to do my best to evoke the feeling of those majestic trees so I can send a card to my Mother-In-Law in a few more weeks and I wanted to do it using a bright pop of color against a neutral background. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that I tried to make this card in about every color combination you see in the inspiration image above photo but nothing popped like the Pure Poppy against the True Black card base. I tried colors in Peach, Coral, Nude, Taupe, Kraft, Rustic White, etc. but in the end I stayed with my choice of True Black (the ultimate neutral) and Pure Poppy. 
The tree is from a SU!'s "Sheltering Tree" photopolymer stamp set. I stamped the tree trunk in Cocoa Bean Ink onto a piece of Canson Bristol Watercolor Paper. For the leaves, I inked it up first in Melon Berry, misted it with water and then stamped it onto watercolor paper. The next layer was done using Berry Sorbet and finally the last layer was done in Pure Poppy. By just barely misting, it keeps the leaves soft and watercolor looking and helps blend the inks just a bit. The greeting is stamped from "Mums The Word" Stamp set by Papertrey Ink stamped onto a leftover piece of the watercolor paper after die cutting a square around the tree with a My Favorite Things Stitched Square Stax Die. Easy Peasy! I cut the next size up for the Pure Poppy Mat and made my card base from True Black Cardstock. I also cut a panel of Rustic White Cardstock for the inside of my card. It's just a nice finishing touch when using a dark card base.
This is actually the fourth card I made for the blog hop but finally chose as my one entry and is my favorite. I'm hoping I'll have time to write a post for one of the other cards for the "Neutrals" Challenge over at Double D Challenges.
