Lovely As A Tree

I needed to design some birthday cards for a stamp a stack I want to hold next month. I was feeling a little under the weather due to some dental work and was working up my mojo.

I find masculine cards are difficult as we are limited with Stampin Up designs for the guys. The ones we do have are great but we could use a few more IMHO.

To get me going I pulled out my old time favourite "Lovely As A Tree". This time I used the Oak leave with the acorn as my focal stamped image. I did use my Nestabilities to cut the die cuts. I stamped the image with Early Espresso and colored the leaves with the Stampin Up markers. I then sponged So Saffron around the colored leaves. Unfortunately it does not show up well in the photo.

I randomly stamped the rectangle below the above image and sponged the edges with Crumb Cake and Early Espresso. Before putting the two layered pieces I sprayed them with the Gold Spritz Smooch. Looks very cool in real life but again the photo does not show it.

I adhered these layers to my card front which I embossed with a wood grain embossing folder and sponged the raised parts with Early Espresso to bring out the grain of the wood. The ribbon I used is non SU but it looked really nice on the card, because it was both brown and black like the card.

This is how I stamped the inside, I do something like this on most of my insides. Even if the card is white. I also like to leave the insides blank so that the card like in this case "Thinking of You" can be used for just about any occasion.

Here's what I used:

Stamps: Lovely As a Tree, Kind and Caring Thoughts (retired)

Paper: Crumb Cake, Black
Crumb Cake Card Base 4 1/4 x 5 1/2

Crumb Cake Rectangle 3 5/8 x 3 3/8

Black Nestabilitie Oval

Black Rectangle 3 3/4 x 3 1/2

Whisper White Oval

Whisper White Rectangle 3 1/2 x 3 1/4

Ink: Crumb Cake, Black, Early Espresso

Accessories: Non SU Ribbon, Gold Spritz Smooch, Stampin Up Markers