Diamond Sentiments

Hey creative friend! It’s Deb here, for the Design Team. Do you known what I realized, today? I realized that I have a LOT of stamp sets with trees! Trees, trees, and more trees! I guess that’s why I chose trees for today’s prompt for the Scrap ‘N Stamp challenge. My house is also surrounded by trees – it’s lovely to look at, especially at this time of year. We have evergreen trees, but we also have a lot of deciduous. So when the leaf buds start emerging, it’s a riot of all shades of green!

CATHEDRAL OF TREES

This first card uses an ‘oldie but a goodie’ stamp from Hero Arts, called Cathedral of Trees. I love this perspective of looking up, from the middle of a grove of trees.

CARD DETAILS

A trick I like to use when doing an ink blended background is to start with a piece of coloured cardstock, rather than white. Choose the lightest of the colour you’re using – in this case, start with light blue. Next, blend on Distress Oxide inks in (from  outside in) Black Soot, Chipped Sapphire and Faded Jeans. Leave the very middle without ink – so that just the cardstock shows through. This gives you the illusion that the center is ‘glowing’ with light.

Next, set up the blended panel in your stamp positioner, with the Cathedral of Trees stamp. Cover the stamp with Nocturne ink, and press firmly. With these large background stamps, I always find it best to ink & stamp twice, to ensure full coverage.  With the panel still in the positioner, line up the sentiment stamp Darkness Stars from Impression Obsession. Stamp with Versamark ink. Remove the panel, cover the sentiment stamping with gold embossing powder, and heat set.

To add some stars, mix a bit of white gouache or acrylic paint with water. Pick up the paint with a small brush, and splatter onto the panel. I also added some gold stars by dotting a Nuvo Glimmer Pen in Midas Touch randomly onto the panel.

Layer the finished panel onto a piece of Gina K. gold cardstock, and then onto a dark blue card base.

SLIMLINE TREES

This next card doesn’t use any tree stamps – but it does use tree dies! I chose the Picket Fence Studios Slimline Die Cutting System with the 2 tree square dies.

I love the simplicity of this card! The blended blue sky just shines, doesn’t it?

CARD DETAILS

First, use the smaller of the slimline dies to cut 2 pieces from white cardstock. Put one aside – this will be for the background. Place the 2nd one back onto your Big Shot cutting plate, and place the 2 square tree dies at either end, and cut. To colour the birch trees, lightly blend on Vintage Photo distress oxide, and then add the black with a fine marker. Colour the evergreen trees with Mowed Lawn distress oxide, and a blending tool. Now, stamp the sentiment from the Poppystamps Diamond Sentiments in the middle, with Nocturne ink.

Place the die cut layer over top of the uncut piece, and lightly trace out the square openings with a pencil. Next, use a blending tool and apply Broken China distress oxide. Layer the 2 panels together with foam tape or squares. Decorate the front by wrapping some linen thread around the front, tying off with a small bow. Add a few coloured rhinestones, and then attach the card front to a green card base.

JOIN THE DAILY CHALLENGE

Are you playing along with the Scrap ‘N Stamp daily challenge? You don’t have to play every single day – play as often as you can! You can find the details HERE in the Facebook group, along with the list of prompts for this month. At the end of each month, one lucky participant is randomly chosen, and wins a $50 Gift Certificate to shop the Scrap ‘N Stamp store! I hope that you’ll join me in today’s challenge with trees, trees and more trees!

SUPPLIES

Speaking of shopping the Scrap ‘N Stamp store, I’ve listed the products I used for my cards, below. Affiliate links for supplies are provided. If you choose to use my links, you help support me in maintaining my blog, at no extra cost to you. Thanks in advance!