Changing Tree

Good morning everyone, today it's my turn, Helen N to bring you the Friday blog project.  I've chosen a card made with one of the new 'Changing Tree' sets.

If you haven't see the 'Changing Tree' sets before then to start you will need the tree base which is in the original 'Changing Tree' set which you can find here.  The tree base comes with three different sets of embellishments to decorate it - 'wedding', 'owls' and 'music'.  Once you have this set, the tree base then works with all the other great sets of embellishments available on the website. 

Here's what you will need to make the card:

Changing Tree stamp set 

Changing Tree Man set 

Dictionary Definitions stamp set

Memento Tuxedo Black ink pad

Versafine Onyx Black ink pad

Bluebell Bazzill card

blue patterned paper

kraft paper

white stamping card

three sizes of circle dies

foam pads

Promarkers

and here's what you need to do:

1. Stamp the tree base on to white card using the black Memento ink pad.  Before you start adding the embellishments, think about what shape your tree is going to be.  I always cut my card to shape at this stage - either by using a die or just cutting it in to a rectangle.  For this one I've chosen a circle so I've used the smallest of the three circle dies to cut it to shape.

2. I also found it useful to use the little carrier sheet that comes with the stamps to see how they will look on the tree - this is handy before you start and also as you work.  You can use the carrier sheet to see how the embellishments fit together as you're building the design.

3. Another tip is to work upwards on the tree - I start by stamping things hanging from the branches and then move on to the tree itself.  

4. You'll also see in the photo above that I have used the newspaper stamp both as a hanging embellishment and in the tree itself without the string.  There are stamps in all the sets that have strings or ribbons on them and it's easy to use these as part of the tree simply by masking off the string or ribbon as you're inking the stamp (as on my block above).  Cover the part you don't want to stamp with a piece of tape, ink the stamp, remove the tape quickly and then stamp.

5. Here's my finished stamped image.  After I've finished stamping the main embellishments, I've then used the little leaf stamp (from the original 'Changing Tree' set) to fill in any gaps.  There are lots of other tiny stamps which will work with other designs too.

6. I've then used Promarkers to colour in the stamped images.  It's worth getting some of the fine tip Promarker nibs for these smaller stamps.  I also find that a darker colour works well with a fine tip nib to give an outline to the stamp - for example I coloured the shirt with Pastel Blue and then used Blue Pearl with a fine tip to outline the edges.

7. To make up the card you will need to cut a card base using the largest circle die and then cut one circle in blue with the same die, two in kraft with the next size down and one in the patterned paper with the smallest size.

8. This is the base of the card using a kraft circle and a patterned paper circle.

9. To make the stopper, I've layered up strips of blue card, kraft paper and patterned paper and then attached these to the largest die using masking tape - the position of the strips on the die depends on where on the base you want the stopper to be.  Die cut the strips and then attach to the base using foam pads.  Stamp one of the sentiments on white card using the Versafine pad (this gives a much clearer outline but can only be used if you're not going to use Promarkers to colour what you've stamped)

10. This is the top panel of the card.  To make sure this is straight on the base, put the fold of the card on one of the lines on your cutting mat and then attach the top panel so the image is straight.

I've also used the embellishment set without the tree base to create a tag card using one of the Little Claire tag cards which I've cut down in to a three panel card.

There are lots of other Changing Tree embellishment sets available on the website:

Baking

Baby

Christmas

Easter

Education

Girly

Have a lovely weekend

Helen x