November 2018 - Joyful Stars Blog Hop!

Welcome back to the Joyful Stars Blog Hop!  If you came here from the artful Betty's blog, thank you for continuing on here!

As I've been dying to have some fun with the November 2018 Stamp of the Month, Seasonal Trees, I decided to use that stamp set as the focus of my card this month.  As implied by the name, this versatile stamp set has trees from different seasons or climates.  Since we're quickly approaching the holiday season, I decided to make a Christmas card and proceeded with the approach of tradition over whimsy.

Upon first sight of the stamp set, I knew immediately I wanted to include Kraft Paper as a background for the tree.  I stamped the "bare tree" stamp in Espresso ink, then stamped the coordinating "leaves" stamp in New England Ivy ink.  To add "snow" to the tree, I offset the "leaves" stamp very slightly and re-stamped in White Daisy Pigment ink.  Then I grabbed the "snow" stamp and randomly stamped around the tree, again using the White Daisy Pigment ink.

Next, I free-hand cut some White Daisy Cardstock to make the "snow hills".  To add a bit of definition, I sponged a hint of Linen ink to the tops of the "hills".  Using Espresso ink, I then stamped the "'Tis the Season" sentiment from the Oh What Fun-Cardmaking stamp set at the bottom of one of the "hills", and layered the pieces on the Kraft Paper background.

To wrap up the card, I adhered the Kraft Paper background to a slightly larger piece of New England Ivy Cardstock and attached the whole thing to a White Daisy Card Base.  Using Pomegranate ink to add a pop of color, I stamped the "bird" image, fussy cut it, and used a tiny bit of Foam Tape to add it to the tree.  Finally, I finished off the card by cutting a small Cricut star from Gold Foil Paper using the Cricut Basic Shapes feature, and by attaching a few Gold Sequins with Liquid Glass.

Now head over to Krista's blog to see her beautiful work next!

Each month you can purchase a new D-size stamp set, available for one month only, for just $5 - that's over 70% off retail!  When you place an order of $50 or more in Close To My Heart products, you qualify for this special Stamp of the Month pricing.  Otherwise, you can purchase this set outright for $18.95.