Sparkle Tree

I recently told myself that I wasn’t going to make any non-DT projects until I was at least a week ahead on my DT cards and blogs, and at least two weeks ahead on recording videos. Well, here is a non-DT project and…. I may have broken the rules already! Whoops. I had the idea for this card whilst working on a card for tomorrow that was a design team project, and I couldn’t not make it! Luckily as the idea was so clear in my mind, and the stamp set was already to hand, it didn’t take me too long to make. And as I don’t have any design team projects needing to be shared today I figured I’d get this one shared already. But tomorrow I’ll go back to getting ahead on my actual required projects. Promise. Or at least… I promise I’ll try…!

I started by creating a mask to do my ink blending. I used a circle die to cut the top portion of the mask, then extended the opening using my craft knife. I had measured the circle against the stamp I wanted to place in the masked area, to ensure it would fit nicely within the space.

I placed my mask onto my card base and started my ink blending. I used two colours of Distress Ink for my blending – Milled Lavender towards the top of the area, and Spun Sugar at the bottom. I think the purple ended up getting a bit lost, but I like how the blending turned out nonetheless. I removed the mask and let everything dry for a while before continuing to my heat embossing.

Once the ink had dried enough I started my stamping. I used CAS-ual Fridays’ Calm and Loving stamp set. I first stamped and heat embossed the trunk portion of the tree in black, then added the hearts with Wow Cloud 9 Embossing Glitter.

I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to do about a sentiment, otherwise I would have added it at the same time as the tree trunk. Once I had decided I went back in and added it with the black embossing powder. I managed to make a little bit of a mess with the sentiment, but I was able to fix it by using a black pen to fill out the lines that hadn’t stamped properly, and a white gel pen to cover any flecks of embossing powder that were out of place.

This card turned out pretty much exactly how I’d imagined, which makes me happy! I did wonder if the black of the tree trunk might be a bit much against the softer look of the glitter, but with the black sentiment too it seems to be fine. The tree almost looks like it is being viewed through an archway, which I hadn’t intended but I like it! It could be fun to play that impression up by drawing in bricks of an archway, maybe. I’ll have to consider that for the future.

Love,

Lady Joyful

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Challenges included:

CAS(E) This Sketch – Sketch

CAS-ual Fridays – Heat Embossing (edit – where it was picked as a favourite!)

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday – The Great Outdoors

Stamping Sensations – In My Garden

STAMPlorations CAS Card Challenge – CAS

STAMPlorations Theme & Sketch Challenge – Stamps and Anything Goes

The House That Stamps Built – The Great Outdoors

WOW Embossing Powder Fans Monthly Challenge – Embossing Glitters