September's Postcard of the Month
Apples.

I had this old Cold Hollow* bag and thought I'd like to maybe do something with these apples:

Which I didn't end up doing...

My first draft (left) looked WAY too Christmas-y (color-wise) to me; 

card on right was just experimenting w/ scraps to try to create some late summer yellows: 

And then, my friend, Jacci, gave me this rubber stamp:

Which I promptly hid with 'leaves', but this was the prototype I went with:

The Fixin's

I decided that not all my little apples should be just plain red, 

so I splattered some greens on some of my red paper and punched:

The Steps

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Step 6

Step 7

Step 8

Step 9

Step 10 - the little pieces of sheet music ended up mostly buried...

Step 11

Step 12 - Ah!  My favorite old tree punch!

Step 13 - leaf effect.

Step 14

Step 15 - I felt like this swathe of 'ground' needed a bit more interest, so I used this little piece of inked, corrugated cardboard and made some field 'rows':

(I stamped with more precise alignment on most of the other cards!)

Step 16 - I muted that little touch of peach up on the l. horizon here:

Step 17 - barely visible - I muted the notes, which was moot, since they disappeared anyway...

Step 18

Step 19 - here come the apples!!  (Small tree)

Step 20 - some more

Step 21 - a few more...

Step 22 - New tree stamp:

Step 23 - Where??!

Step 24 - Big tree apples - they were punched from several different red papers:

Step 25

Step 26

Step 27

Step 28

Step 29

Step 30

Step 31 - first big apple:

Step 32 - next

Step 33 - third

Step 34 - and then I decided that the big tree needed one more apple in the middle.

Panel of 21 of Septembers PoMs:

Fin.

*I'm pretty sure it's not THAT old, but I did do a stint for a few years as Cold Hollow's fill-in baker many (30+) years ago!

Addendum

Well, I managed to drop and break my brand new camera within about 10 days of getting it for my birthday...  :/  So I really haven't been taking many pix on my cell.  But!  We did manage to finally get up Nichol's Ledge, and between the cell and our cumbersome 'old' camera, we caught some pretty great shots!  

The beginning of the trail is pretty soggy.

And then...!!!

 

Mule and I got married in front of this ledge, 11 Augusts ago.

11 years later.

Pretty sure the Peregrine Falcon nests were up in this grove of trees.

Mule on his back trying to catch 'em flying.

And he did!!

And so did I!  Can you see it??! (lower right, right by the tree, just above the horizon)