The Unexpected Pup

I just looooove decorating for fall, and of course I love to have handcrafted items all through the house.  Over at Gingersnap Creations, the theme for the month is Harvest, and our sponsor is... can you believe it..... Cornish Heritage Farms!! (My universe has perfectly aligned for the month, what fun!)  I've had this little Pumpkin Puppy by Cornish Heritage Farms stamped for some time, just trying to find a front-and-center use for him. As I've been blurfing, I've noticed that banners and vintage hanging paper ornaments of all kinds and for all seasons seem to be HOT right now, so inspiration took over.  The base for this little guy is from Colorbok's XY&Z Large Monogram Deck of Cards in black and white, and they are the perfect size for making ornaments for a typical decorative tabletop tree (see mine in the background, it's black, from A.C.Moore).  They come preprinted with a letter and a word or phrase, and I thought that "Expect the Unexpected" was perfect for this little pop-up pup!  For the puppy, I colored in the main areas of the image with markers, "huffed," and stamped.  Then I went back in with markers to give some of the smaller details (lie a few leaves and the stem) some extra color.  I added some distress ink around the edges to give him a more vintage look. (The entire recipe is at the end of this post.)

This is a wonderful time to go on over to Gingersnap Creations to check out their inspiring posts and  "no-stress" challenges!  In addition to the fabulous ladies on the GC team already, my very talented Cornish Heritage Farms teammates will be collaborating all month, posting sneak peeks of the October releases and having some fun with the challenges.  Lots of creativity and inspiration all around!  Plus, there's still time to enter a bunch of the challenges from September, in which you'll have a chance to win some gorgeous stamps from The Stampsmith (September's sponsor).  So... if you're looking for some inspiration on World Card Making Day, or any day, stop on by.

Stamps:
-Pumpkin Puppy (Sara England) - Cornish Heritage Farms

Paper:
-XY&Z Large Monograms Deck of Letters in black and white (Colorbok)
-Also used is a strip of Memory Box paper from the Twilight 6x6 collection.

Ink:
-Ranger Distress Ink in brushed corduroy
-Markers to color directly on the stamp

Other:
-Ribbons by Sheer Creations (hanger ribbon), Ribbon to Bead (in the chipboard button), and Michael’s (the pumpkin ribbon)
-Chipboard buttons (Colorbok)
-Martha Stewart glitter in onyx
-K and Co. craft glue