It is SO hot here in Houston today, I thought if I made a card with the look of fall, like this Beauty of the Earth Fall Trees card, it would cool me off! No such luck, but I still like the card! This is actually pretty much a copy of a card sample in the Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog on page 10, showing off the Beauty of the Earth Suite of products.
Another reason for using this beautiful paper on this card was to remind you that the Stampin’ Up! Designer Series Paper Sale is going on just for this week, until August 2. If you want to stock up on papers you love or get some you don’t have yet, be sure to take advantage of the nine select papers discounted 15%. Don’t miss the Christmas paper, the Tidings of Christmas 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper if you would like a good Christmas paper pretty quick!
I chose Sahara Sand for the card base just because I don’t use it very much! It’s a great neutral color to use. I just have to think of it more often! The catalog sample probably uses Crumb Cake Cardstock. It’s a little darker. I cut a piece of Basic White at 4 1/4″ x 4″ for the background, although after I decided to use a piece of Cajun Craze underneath as a narrow border, I cut the Cajun Craze at 4 1/4″ x 4″ and cut the White down 1/8″ on two sides.
For the sky background on the Basic White, I used my Blending Brush with Pool Party Ink and also Balmy Blue Ink. I wanted the sky to look a little varied in color and I’m happy with the way it turned out. I didn’t want it too dark. Be sure to blend a little on scrap paper or your Grid Paper just before you apply it to the cardstock.
The two trees are diecut out of Soft Suede Cardstock with the Beautiful Trees Dies. The “leaves” on the trees are cut from two different sheets of the Beauty of the Earth Designer Series Paper. I wanted to use one that was colored leaves and one that was mostly green as if the leaves hadn’t all turned color yet. The die was great for cutting these out!
Since these trees are actually pretty large, I could see on the catalog sample that they would each hang off the side of the card. It’s a little tricky because you want to adhere the tree trunks to the sky background piece but it will also hang off that onto the bottom Sahara Sand card base. So I just saw where I wanted the tree trunk placed on the sky piece and so it would be properly placed on the Sahara Sand and glued it down only to the sky piece (which wasn’t adhered to the card base yet). Then I cut off the overhanging branches on the side. Then I added the leafy piece. Decide which tree you want overlapping the other one so you get them placed properly! This was another time I should have used the Adhesive Sheets so I didn’t have to use teeny tiny drops of Multipurpose Glue carefully on the trees! However, the leafy part has larger areas for applying glue!
I also added a stamped image of dirt or a shadow along the bottom of the card. It’s best to stamp this under each tree before you glue them down, as long as you know where you want the stamping to go. I stamped more than the catalog sample because I liked the look. I used Crumb Cake Ink.
The greeting is in the Beauty of Friendship Stamp Set and was die cut with a die in the Beautiful Trees Dies. It is popped up with Mini Stampin’ Dimensionals. You can purchase the Beauty of Friendship Bundle at a 10% discount if you want the stamp set and dies together!
And to finish off the card, I die cut the two red birds. One die cuts both birds at one time which is great! I think they are the perfect finishing touch for this card! We have some cardinals flying in our backyard. I think they have a nest in the tree in the yard behind us. One was caught in the netting around our tomato plants in the backyard, which is supposed to keep birds and squirrels away from our homegrown tomatoes! My husband lifted up the net and he eventually found his way out!
Remember to check out the Stampin’ Up! Designer Series Paper sale! You may want this paper when fall arrives so you may as well save some money while you can! The sale ends on August 2.