KEEP YOUR FAITH

In keeping with the autumn theme with most of my recent posts, I present another very fallish card to you.

Notice the leafy portion of the tree in the card below. It is a stamp from a recent Paper Pumpkin kit. The image was supposed to be stamped twice/pieced together to form one large circular tree shape. In looking at it though, I wondered why I needed to stamp it that way. Why not just do half of the tree and add the trunk below?

I tried it -- and I liked it! 

Another thing that I wanted to try with this particular stamp was a bit of thumping. Since the leaves were solid as opposed to outlined leaves, the stamp was a prime candidate for this technique.

The photo below, although not very complimentary looking in and of itself, shows a close up of the leafy portion of the tree and the detail you can get with the thumping technique.

To do thumping, it is really quite easy. Even though you never know quite what you're going to get -- something like a box of chocolates! -- it almost always turns out to be quite pleasing.

Here is how you do the complex technique of thumping: (just kidding; it's not complex at all!) Give your entire stamp an undercoat. In this case, I inked up my entire stamp of leaves with an undercoat of Petal Pink. Then you begin your thumping. I always use Stampin' Write Markers for this. Holding each marker so the side of the brush end hits the stamp, keep thumping the marker against the stamp, turning the stamp continuously so the thumps always land in different spots. Continue to do this with each color marker you've chosen, remembering to keep turning the stamp.

For my fall tree, I used the following Stampin' Write Markers: Mossy Meadow, Dusty Durango, Real Red, More Mustard, and Merry Merlot. I know a couple of these markers are retired, but like everything else I purchase from Stampin' Up!, I hang onto it -- for occasions such as this one! Cool, huh?

As I've said many times before in my posts, if I care enough to purchase something from Stampin' Up!, I keep it forever, with very few exceptions. Why waste money on something you don't plan on using for a long long time to come?

Once I was all finished with the tree, I used one of the Stitched Rectangles dies (page 183 in the Annual Catalog) to cut it out. I used the die rather than just cutting the Very Vanilla cardstock to fit because of the charming stitching around the edges the die offers. I feel that stitching adds to the hominess and warmth of the card.

I added it, popped up with Stampin' Dimensionals, to one of the gorgeous plaid papers from the Plaid Tidings Designer Series Paper on page 57 of the Mini Catalog. And, hey, it's on sale throughout the month of October! As well as most of the Designer Series Papers!

I must admit that after my tree was finished, I wasn't too crazy about it. It seemed too stark. Adding a Crumb Cake bow to the trunk was the perfect way to "un-starken" it. 

The card base was the deep Cherry Cobbler cardstock.

Finally, do you love the verse on the bottom of the card? Isn't it perfect for what we are going through with the pandemic? It sort of helps keep things in perspective, doesn't it? 

That verse is from a very old retired stamp set called Faith in Nature. Maybe you still have yours around?

Keep the Faith! We will somehow get through this.

Faithful

Smiles.