Nothing Lovlier Than a Tree….

To paraphrase poet Joyce Kilmer, there is nothing lovelier than a tree, which is why I went ga-ga over this beautiful Spellbinders die (Just Swingin’) set that includes a tree silhouette as well as a swing, etc.

My cards with these aren’t the greatest, so I debated whether or not to even show them. But since I AM the imperfect stamper, I decided to show my work, warts and all. (My later experiments were much better, but I mailed the best one without taking a photo. Sigh.)

So … here we go:

A simple use. (Couldn’t decide on a sentiment, so just left it plain and will add a sentiment when needed.)

And another:

This one I really messed up on the edges, but I trimmed a bit, added a piece of border and a sentiment and maybe saved it…?

The next one was the actually the first that I cut, and you can see that I just made a mess of it. It was my practice shot. I didn’t leave enough room on the edge, the paper ripped, the colors barely work together… oh, it is sad.

But what the heck. I trimmed a bit, layered a bit, and stuck on a butterfly to hide the flaw.

Thanks for stopping by…and for not judging too harshly!

Notes from the Imperfect Stamper…

Do you ever have one of those days? I just got this Number Pattern stamp CG516 from Hero Arts and couldn’t wait to mix up some embossing goodness. But see that brown splotch in the top center of the card? Yes…. got a little overzealous with the heat tool.

But since nothing goes to waste here, I punched out the good parts and made two cards! I used three different sized circle punches. (The embossing powders are all from American Crafts — yum, I love the colors! They are Neon Yellow, Neon Green, Apricot and Grapefruit.)

First, the secret to getting just the right spot on your punch — turn over the punch so you can see where you are punching:

Easy, no?

And here are those punched circles hard at work:

Sentiment is from Hero Arts Hip Hip Hooray set CL497; Punches are from McGill and Tonic; Paper … not sure.  I edged the circles with a black marker, but I’m not sure I like them edged in black. Letters on Happy Birthday were colored using gel pens:  American Crafts Bright Pink, Sakura Gelly Roll orange; Spica melon green.

Plain white card stock run through Cuttlebug folder. Three of the circles were simply glued down; the fourth (the little pink 3 to the right) was adhered with a foam dot to make it pop. The sentiment is from Hero Arts’ Hip Hip Hooray set CL494.)

Stay tuned some other cards I made using this numbers background (which I love!) that came out better!