Nature’s Beauty & Peaceful Boughs

Hello, Crafters.

I have many blessings in my life to be grateful for, not least having a hubby who’s an excellent chef and does all the cooking! It’s not often he does anything wrong when he’s wearing his chef’s hat, but last night was a classic! He was making a peppercorn sauce for the steak, and grabbed the brandy bottle. Well, he thought it was brandy! When he tasted it he realised he’d used the salted caramel syrup! Yuk!!

Today’s card was inspired by a card made by SuzyStamps.com. I’ve made several changes to make it my own, but credit goes to SuzyStamps for the inspiration. My colour scheme is Real Red, Basic Black, Sahara Sand, and Call Me Clover. This card gave me the opportunity to use a technique I haven’t used for a long time, and that is highlighting trees and branches with a white gel pen to look like snow. Thanks for the inspiration, Suzy – your card is lovely!I stamped the Sahara Sand Cardstock (CS) top layer with the large boughs stamp from the Peaceful Boughs Stamp Set, which is available in the current Christmas Catalogue as a bundle with the Beautiful Boughs Dies. The bundle saves 10% off the individual prices. These two products will be carried over but won’t be available as a bundle. For the stamping I used Sahara Sand Ink for a tone on tone effect.Next I stamped the fox from the Naure’s Beauty Stamp Stamp set, using Tuxedo Black Memento Ink on Shara Sand CS. I used the mask I’d made on a previous occasion when I used the fox stamp, and stamped the two trees on the right-hand side and the single tree on the left-hand side. After removing the mask, I added falling snow, and lines of settled snow on the ground using my white gel pen. At this stage I hadn’t decided to add the snow to the trees.Next I used all three bough dies from the Beautiful Boughs Dies set and die-cut two of each. This allowed me to play around with various arrangements and save any leftovers for future projects. I chose one of my favourite sentiments from the Itty Bitty Christmas Stamp Set, and stamped it in Memento Ink on a piece of Sahara Sand CS. I also stamped two of the small pines cones on Sahara Sand CS using Sahara Sand Ink. I adhered the Basic Black and Sahara Sand CS layers to my Real Red CS card base. I die cut the fox image using the largest circle die in the Stitched Shapes Dies, and adhered it to the largest size Layering Circles Die scalloped circle in Basic Black CS. Using the smallest Stitched Rectangle Die from the regular set of dies, I die-cut the sentiment, and adhered it to a Basic Black CS layer generic klonopin cost that I had measured manually and cut to size.

Using Dimensionals, I adhered the image towards the top of my card base, and started arranging and re-arranging the boughs to go under the sentiment. It was quite a challenge but I persevered and finally used both the medium-sized boughs, plus one single bough. I adhered them to the back of the sentiment before I added Dimensionals to pop up the sentiment. Wherever it was possible, I added very small pieces of Dimensionals to support the boughs.It was at this stage I decided to add the snow to the boughs and the trees. This is a very non-precise technique, especially with the trees I used because there are hundreds of very small branches! The only thing to remember is to make sure all the white lines are on the same side, as if the snow is coming at the subject matter from the same direction! My final touch for the front of my card was to add a Real Red Ribbon (retired) bow in the top left hand corner.To decorate the inside of my card I added a layer each of Basic Black CS and Sahara Sand CS. Before I adhered them together, I used the stamp of the largest boughs along the bottom of the Sahara Sand CS layer.The final touch was to add the two small pine cones I’d made earlier, by the left-hand side of the sentiment. I thought about adding some snow, but decided to leave well alone! I also thought about adding some Dazzling Diamond Glitter, and hubby thought I should colour the fox.  This is probably why my favourite style of cards is clean and simple – you just don’t get all these possible extras! LOL!

That’s it from me today. I must get my video for Sunday made today because I have a hair appointment at 9 am tomorrow, and have to be back in Coulsdon by 12.30 to have my nails done. By the time I get back home, Saturday will be halfway gone! That’s about it for today. I wish you a fabulous Friday, and I look forward to being back with you tomorrow. In the meantime, happy crafting.

JanB. xx

NOTE: the white gel pen I use is a Gelly Roll

Products used for this project: please click on any link to be taken to my 24/7 online Stampin’ Up! shop. December 2019 Hostess Code is RVWA74X3 Thank you. xx