Stampin’ Up Joint Thursday Blog Hop

Happy Thursday to Everyone! Today we are hopping with some of our friends north of the Border.

We’re joining forces with Sandi MacIver’s Happy Stampers for our Happy Inkin’ Thursday Blog Hop this week! This will be a once-monthly event. We’re also doing something a little fun with the challenges. On our combined weeks, we will have a sketch challenge and a color challenge that we can choose to use individually or together!

I have chosen to do both this month. At first I wasn’t sure I could make the color combination work, as it is outside my comfort zone. However, nothing ventured, nothing gained, so I decided to try it. Actually, I am very pleased with the resulting card.

Here are the colors for the challenge,

And this is the sketch.

Now on with the show! This is the card I chose to make.

Bermuda Bay is my card base and the first mat is Fresh Fig. This panel was put through the Big Shot with the Woodland Textured Embossing Folder, one of my favorites.

Did I say this card is for a man? A friend is having major health issues right now so this card is to let him know I am thinking of him.

Next up I used Thinlits in the Rooted in Nature bundle along with the Big Shot Embossing Mats to emboss the tree and leaves. This is a fun way to stretch the use of your dies-use them for embossing. I embossed the tree and the leaves on the  Pear Pzazz panel, then embossed just the detailed leaves on some scrap paper. I then used the open leaf die to cut them out. Things still looked a little plain, so I used a sponge dauber and some Bermuda Bay ink to give the large embossed tree some color, then added Bermuda Bay and Fresh Fig ink to the cut out leaves.

The Fresh Fig branch is from the Seasonal Layers die set and is cut twice. One of the branches was trimmed and glued to the other to make extra branches.

The sentiment is stamped in Fresh Fig and is from the Accented Blooms stamp set. Since I was going for a rustic look, I didn’t want the sentiment straight up and true, so I angled it a bit, just above the embossed leaves.

I did a quick dry fit of all the pieces and it just wasn’t, well, right. I didn’t have the rustic look I was going for. So, I began tearing. First I tore the Fresh Fig mat, then decided both panels needed to be torn. I think this look is much better. Liquid Glue adhered the embossed Pear Pzazz panel to the embossed Fresh Fig panel. A length of Linen Thread was wrapped around the Fresh Fig panel and taped on the back. A small Linen Thread bow was then adhered with a glue dot.

I did use Tear and Tape to secure the Fresh Fig panel to the card base as I wanted to be double certain it would stay there.

Then came the fun part of adding the branch and leaves over the front. I dry fit them several ways before I adhered them with Liquid Glue and Stampin’ Dimensionals.

On the inside, I embossed leaves in the corners of  the Pear Pzazz panel, using the same technique as for the front of the card. Then I again tore the edges. I did not sponge the edges, either here or on the front. I guess I thought that would be overkill, but it would be fine to do it if you wish. This was then Liquid Glued to the Fresh Fig panel and into the card base. I chose to leave the inside blank so that I could write a longer, personal message.

For the envelope, you know we cannot have a plain, bare naked envelope, I again used the Sponge Daubers and Pear Pzazz and Fresh Fig Inks to ink the three-leaf stamp from Rooted in Nature to give them a multi-colored look. Then I stamped each inking twice for even more variety of color. On the front a simple three-leaf multi-color stamped once was good enough for me.

I think this card turned out well and fairly closely follows the challenges of both color and sketch. Please leave a comment and let me know what YOU think.

If you desire to purchase products and do not have a demonstrator, I will be happy to help you.

HOSTESS CODE: 3YHGPBAT Good through the end of June. There are goodies available if you order through my website. To get the details on loyal customer rewards, click here. Use the hostess code for orders under $150. The link above explains it all.

Now, ON WITH THE HOP! To go to the next, just click the image below, or, if you prefer to skip around, just click on a name to go to that blog. Enjoy!

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