TSTR - Hello, Pumpkin

We're just days away from Halloween, so what better time for a challenge from The Shabby Tea Room entitled, "Hello, Pumpkin!"  In addition,  it's my final week as October Guest Designer...and what a fun month of challenges it's been.  I'm very thankful to Debbie for honoring me with the invitation to participate for this month!

Today's card is filled with bright autumn colors...

and was based on this week's adorable inspiration photo provided by our host, Rebecca. We were to use the colors in the photo, and a flower...

Unfortunately for me, you can see where my much used and loved Epson 1900 is on its last legs...the banding I'm getting is very visible in deeply-colored prints, and is not going away with all the usual fixes. If you are using a photo-quality color printer (that uses multiple color cartridges) that you love and would highly recommend, I'm open to suggestions.  I've searched the web, read user reviews, and shopped until my mind is spinning...and still can't hit that "buy" button.  I'm a long-time Epson photo printer fan, but I'm open to alternatives this time around.

But now, back to the fun of today's card. I made a flower cluster with a base of 3 layers of gathered pale orange tulle...that little dress in the photo won my heart over.  Finding flowers in just the right shades wasn't happening, so I had to get to work coloring my own.  I left the gathered cream cotton lace in it's original color, but took one of my cream colored hand crocheted flowers, and spritzed it with a homemade mix of Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink and distilled water...blotting some of the areas off with a paper towel right after spraying to give it more of a variegated look.  The little paper roses also started off in a cream color...I spritzed them first with some Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls mixed with distilled water, then a spritzing of Mustard Seed Distress Ink and distilled water.

The corner scroll decoration started off gold...a couple colors of acrylic paint (Sable Brown and Vintage White) lightly applied over the gold brought it to the colors I really wanted...

The cotton lace across the front also started out off-white.  A spritizing and (heavier) blotting with the same mix used on the crocheted flower gave it the yellow-orange tones I was looking for...

Supplies:

Patterned papers: Basic Grey Basics/Kraft; Crate Paper Random collection (green)

Dies: Spellbinders Classic Scallop Edgeabilities      Paper roses: CathieFilian.etsy.com

Vintage image: howtogeek.com      Pearls: Recollections and Prima      Tim Holtz memo pin (embellished) 

Hug Snug seam binding

Miscellaneous craft store supplies: tulle, cotton lace, eyelash fiber, crocheted lace, corner scroll   

Thanks for visiting today.  I hope your week is starting with a smile!