Tree, part 8 (final)

Frankly, I'm getting a little tired of the tree, aren't you?

The Blogger's Challenge this week is a theme challenge - Baby. I don't have any babies right now, and I'm not really looking for grandchildren yet. I didn't really want to do anything with babies, but a challenge is a challenge - if you only do the ones you want, then you aren't really challenging yourself, are you?

No, I was not going to do "Rock-a-bye baby, on the treetop"; although it does use a tree, it's really just too gruesome.

I might have a few baby oriented stamps tucked away in my all occasion stamp sets, but I didn't really want to deal with them, they are just too cutesy, although a certain degree of cutesy is called for in a baby card. My mind wandered to the one baby thing I have still held onto, for 27 years now. It is a plastic baby rattle decoration that was on my very first baby shower cake. I kept it after the shower and tied a string through the ring on the end, and hang it each year on my Christmas tree. I didn't have a rattle stamp, I was certain, but could I make one out of punches?



The rattle on this card was made with a circle punch and three different oval punches. It seemed a little plain with just solid cardstock, so I heat embossed all the pieces with white sparkle embossing powder (guess how I stamped the swirls!). I made the background with the TJ Quilt Card technique, and I stamped and cut out the little letters from the scraps I had left over from punching (am I thrifty or what?).

I'm ready to put down the tree stamp. I definitely got my money's worth out of it - ten cards, eight different ways to use the stamp. Woo hoo!

Tree, part 7

When I was doing Scene silhouettes earlier in the week, I had to play around with the brayer a bit more, and made this striped background piece with no real plan for it. Then, digging through my scraps for a card base, I found this one with the Happy Birthday message on it. The colors were a perfect match! So far, so good, but this is tree week! I couldn't make a birthday card with a tree, could I?



I used the Technique Junkies Faux Leafing technique, which looks even better in real life than in this scan. The orange spiral clip is another one of those things I thought would sit in my stash forever, unused.

Tree, Part 5

It was time to step away from the matchy matchy papers and colors and and sparkly bits, and do some doodles. Here are three ATCs I zentangled around the tree. (well, actually, it was in front of the TV, but you know what I mean)



These are all available for swapping.

Tree, part 4

Yes, I'm still playing with the tree. This time I'm using it in the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge, which tends to require a little more glam than the other challenges, so I used a lot of gold. Here is the card:



I know right off I would heat emboss the tree in gold, but the challenge needed a strong focal point, so I thought I would put the tree on a patterned paper. Then, realizing that the corners would be flipped, I thought a two-sided paper would be even better. I didn't have one that I liked, so I took a scrap of paper that I didn't like - you can't even tell that there are green cats behind the tree, can you? Why would DCWV even make paper that has green cats on a green background? I colored it on both sides with Distress inks, and applied the tree, and found a nice pine cardstock that matches the pine needle ink, and then proceeded to make a very elegant Cuttlebug Glow (TJ technique) background, but when I laid all the pieces together, it looked a little too Christmassy for me. I decided I needed a patterned paper instead for the background, but the only way any of my papers were going to work with the distress inked tree is if I distress inked them too.
Then the card was just too dark. I already had gold brads and gold wire and gold ribbon (the ribbon is off a box of candy), a little gold Krylon pen was just the thing.
It's pretty glamorous for being scraps of things I don't like. No new sheets of paper or cardstock were cut for this card, everything is scrap.

Tree, part 3

I only found out about this challenge a few minutes ago, but I couldn't pass it up - Storage Units, Ink and More has such lovely prizes for their challenges. This wasn't a sketch challenge, but an inspiration challenge - we were given a photo of a little girl's bedroom to inspire us (go to the blog to see the photo).



The background paper and sentiment are TAC, and the textured cardstock is DCWV. It is tricky stamping on textured cardstock, but in a way, I like it, because it gives a softer look, and you can tell it was handcrafted, not just printed on a computer. See how Springy my dollar bin tree looks with a few punched flowers on it? I used a lot of punches on this card, too - I love my punches!

Tree, part 2

This time I've used the dollar bin tree in a CPS sketch.



I've used the Scene Silhouettes technique from Technique Junkies, only with Kaleidecolor pads (thanks, Mom!)The cute little leaves are from CTMH, the leaves on the gold paper are LIWP grab bags stamps(they are having an awesome grab bag special right now), and the cardstock is SU.

I've left room at the bottom for a sentiment, once I decide who is getting this card. It will stamp nicely in black, or I could add it on a tag.

Tree, part 1

I did a silly thing this weekend. I bought a stamp at Michael's out of the dollar bin. I belong to two hostess clubs, and have hundreds of stamps, I don't really need a new one, but...
I like this tree. So, to justify the dollar I spent on it, I am challenging myself to use it all week this week in my cards.


This is why people photograph their cards instead of scanning them. You can't see the gold in the brads or in the Krylon accent border. I may come back later with a photograph instead of a scan. Anyway, I used the tree in what Technique Junkies call the Depth of Field technique. there is only one tree on the stamp, I just stamped it three times, to create a little forest. I think this makes a nice masculine card. The paper is DCWV, and the sketch is from TechnoStamper.
I was very good and put away my toys when I finished playing with them.