Olive and Oak

Hello, dear friends. School has begun, and I've heard that up north some of the leaves are starting to change - hard for me to remember those days.

Well, it's the 15th of the month and time for a brand new Instant Garden digital image from Power Poppy by Marcella Hawley called Olive and Oak. It's a beautiful image with an encouraging sentiment.

It's been more than 25 years since we've seen fall, so I had to search for some inspiration and decided to make my oak leaves orange (and also discovered that the veins are the last part of the leaf to change color). And I found some ideas for olives (all sorts of olives in various colors).

Using GIMP, I removed the backgrounds and "recolored" the image and sentiment from black to brown. Then in Microsoft Word I dragged in the focal image, resized it, and then dragged in my sentiment. However, I decided to split the sentiment to "nest" it around the image. So I made a copy of the sentiment in Word and cropped each one (cropping off the bottom of one and the top of the other), and then I moved them. 

This is my first (feeble) attempt at no-line coloring, and it was a challenge (for me anyway). But we have to start somewhere, right (half smiling)? After coloring, I added a narrow mat and used the out-of-the-box technique again. And of course I thought piercing added some interest. I used a striped embossing folder to give the background some texture and mounted it on the soft brown card base. I popped the focal image with dimensional tape...and was done.

Since this month's Poppy Power challenge is "Gifts from the Heart," I decided to make a gift set of cards for our middle son who is a pastor. Unlike so many people today, he actually likes to hand write notes (and prints beautifully). I made the focal image brown to match my card stock, dragged it into Word, copied and positioned four of them, and printed a sheet. I die cut them and matted them, and then I adhered each one to a square card base. I will use various sentiments, but for this first card I used my MISTI and a sentiment from So Grateful. I will see what other sentiments will work and probably tie them together with some jute or perhaps put them in a clear gift box. I may even try Allison Cope's great tutorial for coloring in sepia tones. So how's that for easy to make some quick Thanksgiving cards too, eh? So many ways to use digis!

Now it's time to visit the rest of the Instant Gardeners and also visit with Marcy...I always love reading how she was inspired! Be sure to visit Power Poppy to get this new digital release to use today. While you are there, check out the entire digital collection...it keeps growing! 

Jennifer Dove
Broni Holcombe
Cheryl Scrivens <me>
Rhea Weigand
Debbie Olson

Marcella Hawley

I love how Marcy has used the olive as a symbol of peace and the oak as a symbol of strength. It makes a beautiful image and perfect with the encouraging sentiment. God made the oak tree to be strong, and I am so thankful that He is my strength and peace in every situation that comes into my life. There is no greater peace than knowing He has me in the palm of His hand.

God is my strength and refuge,
a very present help in trouble.

Psalm 46:1

Thanks so much for "stopping by" and sharing a comment, thought or question. I am always happy to answer questions, so don't hesitate to email me. I am entering this card for this week's challenge at Word Art Wednesday, and it also works for today's Color Challenge at Splitcoaststampers.

I hope you have a wonderful rest of the week!

Blessings,

Card One: 
Stamps:  Olive and Oak (Power Poppy) 

Paper: Classic White (Neenah), Soft Suede (SU)

Tools/Accessories: Copic markers, Squares dies (Spellbinders), Perfect Layers, Stripes embossing folder (Darice), piercing tool, 3M dimensional tape

Techniques: Digital images using Microsoft Word and GIMP, out-of-the-box technique

Card Size:  4¾”

Card Two: 
Stamps:  Olive and Oak, So Grateful (Power Poppy) 

Paper: Classic White (Neenah), Soft Suede (SU), Vintage Cream (PTI) 

Ink:  Chocolate Chip (SU)
Tools/Accessories: Grand Squares dies (Spellbinders), Perfect Layers, MISTI

Techniques: Digital images using Microsoft Word and GIMP

Card Size:  4½”