Hi, There, Stampers!
As I was in the final stages of getting ready for our vacation road trip, I wanted to make at least one more card. And I wanted that card to feature at least one product from the current Stampin’ Up! Sale-a-bration Brochure. Sale-a-bration, as I’m sure you know, is the promotion that allows you to choose products FOR FREE once you’ve purchased $50 or $100 of Stampin’ Up! products. It’s August by the time you read this. So there’s still almost a full month before this Sale-a-bration promotion is over.
Warning: Sale-a-bration products are available only “while supplies last.” Hopefully the product I’m writing about today will still be around when you read this. It’s in good supply as I write this. So crossing fingers and toes!
The Tree Lots Dies
One of the products you can get FOR FREE for spending $100 on Stampin’ Up! products during Sale-a-bration is a set of dies that has images you might see in a Christmas Tree lot. The die set is called Tree Lot, and it coordinates with a stamp set in the new Mini Catalog. The stamp set is called Trees for Sale. And would you believe it also has images that you might see in a Christmas Tree lot? OK, I guess that was a given.
Keeping It Simple
As I said, I was trying to get some card making and blogging done quickly as I was in the last stages of getting ready for a 3-week trip. So I wanted this card to be quick and easy. Quick and easy does not entail stamping a bunch of images and then fussing with them to make sure that the dies are set onto the stamped images just right. So right off the bat I decided that I was just going to die cut. With the Tree Lots Dies having both a background and well as a textured foreground for three trees, I decided to just go for die-cutting some trees.
Choosing the Colors
This is always the second part of a card-design puzzle. Once I’ve decided on the basic design premise, then find colors. And “green” isn’t necessarily easy with all the gorgeous greens Stampin’ Up! has in its color palette. So I started looking at holiday Designer Series Papers and the Lights Aglow Designer Series Paper solved my problem for me. There in that set were Evening Evergreen and Soft Succulent, colors that coordinate beautifully. So off I went to start die-cutting trees.
About Liquid Glue
In years past the idea of gluing those thin front parts of the trees to the background layer would have made me go looking for something else to do. You might think I’m talking about using the Stampin’ Up! Adhesive Sheets. I’m not. I have not had much luck using those sheets where there is such fine detail as there are in those tree pieces. What I am talking about is using Liquid Glue. With a lot of practice (a LOT of practice), I can now wield a container of Liquid Glue with easy. It really does take practice. And, if you’ve avoided using it because you get big globs of glue on teensy areas, I really encourage you to practice getting small dots and thin lines of that glue. If you’d like some coaching with this let me know.
Arranging the Trees
Once I got all the trees cut and glued, I simply arranged them on top of the Lots Aglow paper until I liked the arrangement. I also took into consideration that I wanted to add some of the luscious Soft Succulent Satin Shimmer Ribbon as an embellishment. So the arrangement had to be a bit on the high side of the card front.
Speaking of embellishments. Several times I got out red dots/rhinestones to decorate the trees. But using them seemed to change the feeling of the card. I really did want something a bit more subtle.
The Sentiment
If you look at the Trees for Sale Stamp Set, you’ll see the “Christmas Greetings” sentiment. It’s one stamp with the two words lined up. I didn’t have that kind of room on this card. The trick to stamping words on a stamp in a different placement for the actual stamp is this: Cut a piece of sticky note (use the sticky part) and place that over the word you don’t want stamped. Then ink up the stamp. Remove the sticky note paper and stamp. Only the one word that got inked up will show. You can use the same sticky note paper for the second word, too. But be sure to clean your stamp really well before doing the second word!
Inside the Card
Christmas is the one time of the year when I insist that my cards have a sentiment inside. For one thing, with all the cards to send, I barely get a signature in the card. Long notes just don’t happen. There are some really great inside-the-card sentiments in the Stampin’ Up! catalog this holiday season. I’ve been using those in the Sweet Candy Canes Stamp Set. That’s what I used for this card, and I even added one of the trees from the Trees for Sale Stamp Set.
Headed off on Vacation
This time it really is my last article until I get back from vacation. There’s so much to do! But I have lots of ideas to post once I get back. See you then!
Meanwhile, keep cool in this hot weather!
