Just For You Card for a friend.

Hello, Crafters. 

Wahoo! Yesterday was day six of Summer 2016. Today we woke up to find it had rained during the night, which is the best time for rain in my book! LOL! It's all dried up now and the sun is trying to battle its way through the hazy clouds!

I took hubby to the hospital for his retina scan yesterday afternoon, which I'm very pleased to say, went very well. Whatever it is that they put in his eyes, stings a lot and is very uncomfortable. He really struggled to keep his eyes open when we left the hospital building to go to the car. The fact that it's summer and the sun was shining really didn't help! When we arrived home, he laid down and closed his eyes for about an hour, which was all he really needed for them to calm down. 

When I started making today's card, I had two criteria. One was to use the Thoughtful Branches Bundle and second was to create a Just For You card for a friend. Mission accomplished! I started my card with a base of Whisper White Cardstock, then a layer of Wild Wasabi and a top layer of Whisper White.

Using the top layer and Wild Wasabi Ink, I stamped the top part of the tree about half an inch down from the top edge. I changed to Soft Suede Ink and stamped the tree trunk so the tops of the branches nestled comfortably into the foliage. I went back to Wild Wasabi Ink and stamped the grass so the top of the blades of grass just met up with the bottom of the tree trunk. This left me with a great gap for my sentiment.

I thought of several options for this space but decided on this sentiment, which is from the Watercolour Wings Stamp Set. I stamped it on a piece of Whisper White Cardstock using Wild Wasabi Ink. Then I layered it onto some Wild Wasabi Cardstock.


I stamped the top part of the tree on a scrap of paper and experimented with stamping the apples from the stamp set onto the tree but they looked too big. I tried a couple of small round stamps I found in different stamp sets - one was from Botanical Blooms, and the other was from Live, Love, Grow. Although they were both small, certainly smaller than the apple that comes in the stamp set, I felt they were still too big! I decided to colour in freehand using my Real Red Marker Pen. The final touch was to stamp two west-facing birds and two east-facing birds onto some scrap Whisper White Cardstock using Soft Suede Ink. Then I die cut all four.

I adhered the two layers to the card base using Tombow, and did likewise with the sentiment. I adhered three birds in the tree and one on the sentiment. Then I painted all four using my Clear Wink of Stella Glitter Brush. As I said yesterday, I don't like the look of these birds without eyes. For today's card, I experimented using small Pearls for their eyes. Although I like the look, I'm not 100% about the idea. I think it's because they need colour. Next time I use the birds, I'll paint the pearls brown before I adhere them to the card.

That's about it for today. Until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.