As hot as it is what better way to cool off then to think Fall, Pumpkins and Leaves. The current challenge at SVGCuts.com is to make something related to fall using only elements included in any of three files:
Pick a Pumpkin
Harvest Hill Farm
Harvest Country Home

There is a score of wonderful entries already posted and more to come since the challenge doesn't end until August 26. I can't tell you how much paper I have cut up and tossed trying to come up with something for this challenge that is different. So many of the crafters on this site are so talented and creative that I was having a hard time trying to NOT duplicate some of their ideas and projects.

I started out with the idea of doing a wall hanging for the challenge since I had visited Joann's (fabric store)  and saw some really cute hangings in their fall displays. Originally I thought to use the picture frame found in the Harvest Country Home file as the plague base but changed my mind once I saw the baking sheet. It was more solid and would be sturdier than the frame. I knew I wanted some kind of pumpkins, flowers and leaves as decorations and I knew I wanted to use golds, greens, orange and brown as my color scheme. So I started pulling paper together and looking at the various elements in the files to see which ones would work with the paper I selected.

This picture shows some of the elements I cut out cause I really wasn't sure what I wanted from the huge selection in the files or how they would look withthe paper once I got them cut:

Once I got some of them glued and laid out on the baking sheet it just didn't go together as I thought. My wall plague just didn't work for me. Once again I figured I would toss the project and start over. As I was folding the baking sheet in half so that it would fit into the recycle bin better it hit me. It wasn't firm enough to hang but is was flexible enough to wrap. HUMMM

I took a paperback book from the shelf and folded the baking sheet around it- It wrapped perfectly and was just the right size in width. It is a little longer than the average paperback but that is OK by me since I sometimes read large print books and they are a bit longer. I did find that it was just a little short for my NOOK but I can always make another later for the NOOK.

I dug around into my ribbon stash and found enough of the right color to add straps on the inside that will hold the book into the cover and add ties so that the cover can be closed when not reading. I cut another baking sheet out and glued the two together so that the ribbon ends are not only hidden but secured as well. I had only one other problem to solve before my Autumn Book Cover was complete.

                                       

I didn't like the colors I used from the pumpkin. Once I got all the layers glued together I thought they were flat and dull. So I dug through my stash of stuff and got out my Spectrum Noir pens and started coloring the colored paper.

I used:

OR1 to brighten the orange in the pumpkin

EB5 to darken the brown on the vine

BP6 to change a gold leaf to a pinky orange leaf

BP2 to change a gold leaf to a reddish orange leaf.

BG6 change the green shadow on the pumpkin to a brownish green &

GB10 helped add depth to the other outlines on the pumpkin.

 

Over all my wall plague that started as a baking sheet has turned out to be a very cute paperback book cover that will help make my coffee table decorative and festive throughout the fall season.