Trees again?

Hmmm…. trees again? Well I do love these trees! I’m very fond of greens, too, as you’ve probably noticed.

I realised the other day that I’ve barely used my En Francais background, which is a crime as it’s so beautiful. So here it is – stamped on the top section of the base layer of this card and again on the image layer.

If you click on the picture to enlarge it you’ll see that the En Francais background appears just around the edges of the layer. Here’s how I did this:

1. First I stamped the tree image on the cardstock and trimmed to size.
2. Then I stamped the image on some scrap paper (I didn’t bother to re-ink the stamp) and cut the image out roughly to make a mask.
3. I attached the mask to the “real” image using temporary adhesive (alternatively, you could make your mask from sticky notes).
4. Next I inked up my background stamp and laid it, rubber side up, on one side of a sheet of A4 scrap paper.
5. I laid the tree image layer face down on the stamp, then folded over the other side of the scrap paper.
6. If I'd been inking the whole piece of cardstock I would have rubbed gently all over the scrap paper but, as I just wanted the French words around the edges, I only rubbed where I wanted them to appear. The mask was just a precaution to stop me getting unwanted ink on the tree.
7. To make the tree stand out more, I then chalked around the edges of the cardstock which had the side effect of making the French words more pronounced.

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree (p45), En Francais (p58)
Cardstock: Always Artichoke, Bravo Burgundy, Certainly Celery, Very Vanilla
Ink: Always Artichoke, Bravo Burgundy, Certainly Celery
Accessories: ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon – Always Artichoke, 3/8” Grosgrain Ribbon – Certainly Celery, Stampin’ Pastels® (p82), sponge daubers (p81), household staples

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.