A Tree for Dad

Hi there,

time to slip in my Mojo Monday post today (I hope). I really liked the sketch this week. So here is it.

I'm not quite sure how I came up with this idea - I guess I was just thinking about what I could fit into a circle and what cards I might be needing sometime soon. When I came across this DSP from the Spring Break pack and decided the colours would work well with the big oak tree from Lovely as a Tree - well a card was born!

And here's a side view to give you a glimpse of the inside and you can also see how the rectangles are lifted up on dimensionals.


Just a few special points to note, to stamp the tree I first used markers to colour direct to the stamp, I sort of did scattered patches of Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie and Chocolate Chip and then used a blender pen to blur the edges together a bit. When I stamped it - it was nice but not quite intense enough, so first I went lightly over with my aquapainter, then in turn loaded the three markers into my colour spritzer and spritzed away till I got the what I wanted. Another gentle swirl with my aquapainter and it was done! It actually looks more blurry in the pics than it is in real life. Oh the other main "trick" was that I only wanted a small dad label. Luckily I noticed when I got my alphabets out that Whimiscal Lower has a "and" stamp in which the text size is quite a bit smaller. "And" has an "a" and a "d" and that was what I needed for "dad", a little bit of stamp-ma-jigging later and I had my label. As to the rest of it - well it a mix of cuttlebug, DSP, circle nestabilities, corner rounding, brads and ribbon. All the details are below.

Recipe: (All SU unless otherwise noted)
Stamps:Lovely as a Tree, Whimiscal Lower
Cardstock: Blue Bayou, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White
Ink: Blue Bayou, Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive
Accessories: Spring Break DSP, Distressed Stripes Cuttlebug folder, Blue Bayou stitched grosgrain ribbon, Hemp Twine, Circle Nestabilities, Colour Spritzer, White Bo Bunny Brads, Piercing tool, 1/8", 1" and 1 1/4" circle punches, Corner rounder punch, Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive, Double sided tape

Mothers day Waratah

Hi there,

well this has ended up being my first set inked up from my new catty order - and I have been enjoying it. I knew I wanted to use one of the flowers (the set is in the new Australian catalogue) for my Mum's mother's day card. But was feeling a bit lost as to how to go about the layout - I was thinking circles but I didn't have my circle nesties yet (that was just remedied today - yippee - how pleased was I to received that package - thanks to Bizzy Bec for that).

Anyway back to the card - luckily enough the new Mojo Monday sketch was perfect. So here's the sketch.

I wanted to go with colours that came from our Aussie environment (earthy) but at the same time were brightish. So settled on Ruby Red and Old Olive as the main two. I first coloured my Waratah flower in with markers, - Cameo Coral, Ruby Red and added dark lights with Bravo Burgundy. Then the leaves, first with Old Olive then added accents of Always Artichoke. It was then blended and water coloured using my aquapainter. I actually did this twice - once on the base image, outlining it with Going Gray and then again for the paper toiled Waratah that is sitting up on dimensionals. In lieu of a ribbon at the bottom I crimped a strip of Ruby Red and added a large filigree brad (which I love!!) and finally stamped Mum in Basic Black straight onto the Old Olive layer. A couple of extra details - silver brads and a scalloped bottom edge and its all done. So here it is finally...

The inside was simply finished off with a strip of DSP layered over a scalloped Old Olive strip.

Recipe: (All SU unless specified)
Stamps:Bloom Away, Whimsical Alphabet Lower, Sanded
Card Stock: Ruby Red, Old Olive and water colour paper
Ink: Old Olive, Basic Black, (Cameo Coral, Ruby Red, Bravo Burgundy, Old Olive, Always Artichoke, Close to Cocoa, Going Gray markers)
Accessories: Crimper, Aquapainter, large Filigree brad, silver brads, Ginger Blossom DSP, Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive, sticky strip