! In honor of this month’s Cartridge JUST BECASUE CARDS I decided to take the tree card from page 57 and put my own twist on the design (LOVE THAT GYPSY GIRL).
We just recently moved and the house we are renting has a tree swing so I immediately fell in love with this card when I was “leafing” through the book (<== I crack me up sometimes). And of course being a Gyptian I couldn’t resist altering the design to fit my own personal taste.
I took the Shadow of the tree and sized it 9.5 inches (remember this is a layer on the card so it only cuts at about 5 inches). I copied and flipped the image vertically and welded the two pieces together to make the card base. I then cut out all the tree layers (also at 9.5 inches to keep them all sized together).
Next I wanted to add some texture to the tree to give it some visual interest. I got out my Cuttlebug and embossed the top layer of the leaves (the one with holes in it) using the D’vine Swirls embossing folder. Next I wanted the tree bark to have some texture too but had to be careful because I didn’t want the swing to be embossed. I used the Spider Web embossing folder and with a little playing was able to emboss just the trunk of the tree.
Now some of the “leaves” area was embossed but that is okay because that will be covered up when I layer the shapes together.
Now – do you really think that I could leave the embossing plain? Of course not. Out came the ink and I inked the embossed leaves and trunk to make them pop a little.
After scoring and folding my welded shadow base – I was ready to assemble my tree swing card.
I put all my layers together then decided that it was still too plain so I grabbed my FlowerSoft green mixture (one I made from 3 different greens to give it more color variation) and added some “grass” to the base of the tree. Hmmm… still not right – it needed just a little something more. I decided this was the perfect opportunity to test out my new I-Rock tool and gems. I really like how the gems added that element of sparkle to the card (and I know it must be perfect because my 11 year old daughter came into my craft room and absolutely NEEDS this card to send to her friend – what more approval is there – LOL).
Here is the close up of my card. I would love to know what you think. Thank you to Pam for having me design today’s “gem” for you (<== cracking myself up again). If you like what you see feel free to visit my blog LooneyBugDesigns and sign up to be a follower.