Trees

This card is for Allison's (Stampin' When I Can) Suggestive Sunday challenge. The topic this week is trees. The card design that I initially planned involved a pewter picture hanger and some ribbon. As I was putting it together, however, I decided that I preferred this sketch for this card. The soft trees, muted background, and verse all lend themselves to simplicity. The background just kind of evolved. It started with my random stamping three small leaves on my New England Ivy cardstock with CTMH's new Clear ink. Not satisfied with the look it created, I random stamped again with New England Ivy ink, overlapping the images so that almost all of the paper was covered with ink. Lastly, I took one of the leaf stamps and stamped here and there with the Clear ink. The results are interesting, pretty, and give the appearance that I knew what I was doing.

Materials & Tools: CTMH Naturals (retired) and New England Ivy Cardstock; Chocolate, New England Ivy, and Clear ink pads; Impression Obsession Winter Trees, CTMH Make It Count, and Autumn Splendor stamp sets.

While making the first card, I had a vision for a second. This one is considerably bolder. It's 5-1/2 inches square and involves four 1-7/8 inch squares, four 2-inch squares, and four 2-3/4 inches squares of cardstock. It's all easy with the exception that you need to be relatively careful when cutting your paper, so that all of the elements "fit." While I don't think I've ever had one of these come out perfect, this one looks pretty darned good - from arm's length anyway.

Materials & Tools: CTMH Naturals (retired) and Chocolate cardstock; Chocolate and Cocoa ink pads; Impression Obsession Winter Trees and CTMH The Good Life Stamp sets.