OUAS: Apple Days

Today I'm sharing a layout called "Apple Days" that I created for the latest Once Upon a ... Sketch challenge.  The thing I love about OUAS sketches is that they always have lots of room for embellishments.  I had so much fun fancying up my layout with embellies.  Some of them are even handmade.  I'll tell you more about them in a moment, but first, here is "Apple Days" (below).

Supplies: red patterned paper (Lily Bee Design); green patterned paper (October Afternoon); yellow patterned paper (Echo Park); maize patterned paper (My Mind's Eye); photo collage software (walgreens.com); journaling card, chipboard, buttons, stickers, rub-ons, faux tickets (all from October Afternoon); pen (Zig); bottle cap (Bottle Cap Inc.); wire (Artistic Wire); thread (DMC); green ink (Clear Snap); brown ink (Versa Color); repurposed items (used postage stamp, vintage wooden charms, metal charm from old charm bracelet, fabric & natural fibers from jelly jar lid, ribbons from Christmas wrappings); misc (seed beads).

The journaling reads: "Early last week our favorite local apple variety, Honeycrisps, hit store shelves.  I brought a big sack home, and we gobbled them up.  Then, over the weekend, we enjoyed the Apple Festival at historic Gibbs Farm.  It was a yummy week!"  It was pleasant to journal about the simple joys that autumn has brought to my family and me as of late.

I bought a jar of crabapple jelly at the Gibbs farm (you can see it in the upper left-hand photo in the collage), and its lid was covered with a decorative square of fabric and a loop of natural fibers.  I decided to transform these decorative elements into custom embellishments for my page.  First, I wrapped the loop of fibers with beading wire (too help it hold its shape), and it became the frame for my title work (see below).  

Next, I made an apple-shaped yo-yo with the fabric, glued it stitched-side-down in the bottom corner of my layout, and embellished it with a ribbon bow and a metal charm (see photo below).  That goose charm is from a charm bracelet that I had when I was a little girl.  I figure that it will do me more good on display in my scrapbook than it was doing me buried at the bottom of my jewelry box.

I stuck with a vintage/farm theme for the rest of the page embellishments, as well.  The wooden charms (see photo below) are vintage bingo game pieces, which I bought at Beadniks during ScrapFest last month.  They are a bit like the vintage-look Tim Holtz bingo pieces, except that they are *actually* vintage.  I placed them number-side-down on my layout, tied thread through their top-drilled holes, and added interest with rub-ons.

I had the idea that an upside down bottle cap looks a bit like a pie tin, so I filled one with seed beads, topped it off with an old apple postage stamp (lucky me, the cancellation mark hardly shows on that stamp), and used it as a sort of "apple pie" embellishment on my page (see photo below).

I'm pleased that these embellishments are not just decorations--they actually reinforce the theme of my page.  I think they are representative of my style, since I often incorporate recycled elements into my projects.  In fact, today I've added a new set of tags to my word cloud: postage stamps, bottle caps, beads, charms, and stitching.   I use these items frequently, so I thought it would be nice to keep track of the posts that they are in.

Thanks for stopping by to check out my latest autumn project.  Last week we had unseasonably warm weather, and I managed to get outside quite a bit to shoot more autumn photos.  So, I'm sure I'll be blogging again soon to share some more autumn projects with you.  See you then!