In the Meadow...

Hey, there!

It's October.
And it's official.
I cannot pretend that it is still summer.

(sigh)

Such is life.

I have to do a few things to trick myself into getting excited about a season which will eventually bring me gray, cold days.

Gray + cold = my Krytonite

So I do things like buy my favorite article of fall/winter clothing... the cardigan. Usually from Target. And then to cheer myself up I refer to them as Tardigans :)

I plan silly Halloween outfits for our family and scour the local thrift shops looking for the parts and pieces. Last year all of us were Peter Pan, Captain Hook, Wendy, Tinkerbell, and Tick Tock the alligator. This year is in the works. You'll have to wait on the reveal.

I work on Christmasy cards and projects.

And that brings us to today :)
Papertrey Ink's October release is coming up on the 15th and the PTI designers are all banding together today to bring you some wintery inspiration!

In the Meadow... what a sweet winter set.  It's filled to the brim with lots of solid images and coordinating sentiments.  I put a few of the coordinating dies and stamps to work in this little piece...

I was really drawn to the "snowflakes sparkle and tree tops glisten" sentiment.  It brought to mind sparkly, full trees... and seeing them all in white like from the ski lift I ride on every year (you know... during the 4 days a year when I appreciate the cold and snow).

I wanted to bring that tree to life, so I went with a 3D tree.  I started by using the coordinating In the Meadow tree die to die-cut a stack of tissue paper.  I used about 10 sheets and cut them all at once. 

In order to add the sparkle to my tree, I cut a few extra trees and full-on glitterfied them :)  A little coating of spray adesive does the trick with fragile tissue paper.  Each one got a little dip in a pile of glitter and came out looking quite sparkly and happy.

 

I slipped the super sparkly trees into my stack of plain trees, lined them all up again, and then stitched a simple line straight down the middle of the tree.  That keeps everything together and lets you fan out all the different layers...

The stack of layers found a new home in a pretty frame with a white mat.  I covered the backing portion of the frame with a simple linen panel (put that spray adhesive to use again there) and used Scortape to stick the tree right on.  The sentiment has it's own little spot on a Photo Finishers die cut.

But the best part?

The little red birdie living on one of the upper branches.  I took the super simple route and just die cut him out of glittery cardstock for an instant pop of color and cuteness :) 

And that's one Christmas pick-me-up-project down :)

For a little more Christmas inspiration, just head on over to see these gals...

Nichole Heady
Betsy Veldman
Erin Lincoln
Maile Belles
Lisa Johnson
Dawn McVey
Heather Nichols
Melissa Phillilps
Michelle Wooderson
Danielle Flanders

Each one is bringing you more of In the Meadow.

And I can tell you this... it's the perfect set for crafting it out to a steady stream of Christmas carols while sipping on a pumpkin spice latte.  It was my weekend recipe for perfectly Christmasy crafting time :)

Any other perfectly Christmasy crafting time tips to get me in the winter crafting mood??

{Tree Tops Glisten} frame
Stamps - In the Meadow
Ink - VersaMark
Dies - In the Meadow Silhouettes, Photo Finish Strips collection
Paper - tissue paper, glitter paper (Best Creations)
Other - gold Filigree detail embossing powder