Thankful for Pie… and You

There are certain things I am thankful for.

Family. Friends. Coffee.

And pie.

Not necessarily in that order before I’ve had the coffee.

This week’s Polkadoodles Design Team challenge is Food & Drink, and apparently I looked at that theme and decided we needed an entire slice of pie taking centre stage. Honestly, I stand by that decision.

I wanted this card to feel fall-ish without becoming one giant explosion of orange, so I started with two coordinating printable papers: a sweet little pumpkin-and-floral print and a muted fall plaid. Then I added my very generously sized slice of pumpkin pie, because if we’re making imaginary pie, there is absolutely no reason to be stingy with the portions.

Let the Paper Pick the Colours

There’s actually a handy little cardmaking trick hiding underneath all this pie.

When you’re combining patterned papers, let the papers choose your colour palette.

Instead of colouring your image first and then digging through approximately 4,732 pieces of patterned paper looking for something that matches, start with the papers.

For this card, I pulled the muted green, pumpkin orange, brown, cream and burgundy tones from the two patterns and repeated those colours throughout the rest of the design.

They show up in the pie and fall foliage, the little embellishments and even the wooden beads.

It’s a really simple way to make multiple patterns work together. You can have quite a bit happening on a card—and apparently I did—without everything fighting for attention.

Two patterned papers. Giant pie. Leaves. Acorns. Twine. Wooden beads. Splatter.

On paper, that sounds dangerously close to fall throwing up on my card.

But because the same small colour palette keeps repeating, everything still belongs together.

Building the Card

I matted both patterned-paper strips onto brown cardstock and placed them along the left side of a white card panel, leaving plenty of clean white space on the right.

That white space is doing some heavy lifting. It gives all those patterns and colors somewhere to stop and lets the pie remain the star—which, frankly, is the kind of respect pie deserves.

I printed and colored the pumpkin pie and fall elements, then layered them across the patterned papers and white portion of the card. The large Thankful sentiment went above the image.

A little gold splatter carried the gold through the background, and I wrapped gold twine around the card before tying it beside the image. I added three natural wooden beads to the twine for another little bit of texture and finished everything with a few small embellishments in colours pulled directly from the patterned papers.

And then we get to my favourite part:

FOR PIE
(and you)

The “and you” is mine.

It isn't part of the Polkadoodles sentiment.

Because apparently For Pie wasn't quite enough affection for one greeting card.

Another Reason I Love Working Digitally

And this brings us to another handy thing about digital crafting that sometimes gets overlooked:

You aren't necessarily stuck with the sentiment exactly as it comes.

I can print a digital sentiment and then add my own little line underneath it. I can combine sentiments, change the arrangement or create an additional bit of text that makes the greeting work for the particular card I'm making.

That's a very small thing that opens up a surprisingly large rabbit hole.

Today it's:

For Pie (and you).

Tomorrow, who knows what nonsense I'll add.

And while we're discussing the advantages of digital supplies, there's the usual good stuff: instant access, resizeable images, the ability to print another one when your colouring goes horribly wrong, and absolutely no physical stamp set requiring me to find another six inches of storage space.

But lately I've discovered another rather fabulous feature:

NO TARIFFS.

No package crossing the border.

No customs.

No surprise fees.

No staring at a tracking screen wondering where your craft supplies have gone to reconsider their life choices.

Download. Print. Colour.

Damn insanity avoided.

The Takeaway

So while today's card may appear to be mostly about my devotion to pie, there's actually something worth stealing from it for your next project.

Choose your patterned papers first and let them build your colour palette.

Pick a handful of colours they have in common and repeat those colours through your focal image, cardstock and embellishments. It takes a lot of the guesswork out of mixing patterns and makes even a fairly busy design feel pulled together.

And if your sentiment doesn't say quite what you want?

Add to it.

That's the beauty of making the card yourself.

Apparently it's also how your loved ones end up ranked slightly behind baked goods.

Thankful for pie.

(and you.)

Priorities.

Polkadoodles Products Used

Pumpkin Pie/Autumn Fall Halloween Treats digital image
Fall printable papers — Autumn Fall Paper 3
Thankful / For Pie sentiment — Thankful Free Sentiment
Autumn Fall elements

Note: “(FOR PIE and you)” was added by me and is not part of the original Polkadoodles sentiment.