Thanksgiving Crusade Process

Whenever I undertake a sizable project like the Thanksgiving Crusade, it helps to get a bunch of relevant supplies together. For instance, here's everything I have that's fall-themed in stamps and punches:

Generally, I organize these into plastic baskets so all the stuff I might use is gathered in one handy place, and then the ideas start flowing. As you can see, there's a lot of fall-themed stuff here! It's just a starting point, however. Sometimes ideas spark in very strange ways.

Today's card resulted mostly from a cool color combination on Pinterest of aqua-blue and dark brown. Now, brown is easy for fall, but how do you use aqua on a fall card? Hmmm. As I glanced through a magazine (some random issue of Take Ten), an artsy card with wood grain background caught my eye.

Wood grain? Well, why not!

I like it! Fresh and different. But no way did I think to pull that wood grain stamp out with my fall stamps. Now, it seems a perfect idea (although not always with such a creative color, perhaps!).

So if you pull supplies for a project, don't limit yourself to just what is in front of you. Relax and let random ideas connect in your brain, and see what happens when you play around. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. But you learn something every time!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts wood grain background. Simon Says Stamp Autumn Blessings
ink: Hero Arts, Memento
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: Papertrey twine, Martha Stewart leaf punch, dimensionals, glue pen