Trees for All Seasons and a Scripted Flower

Hi everybody.  Here are some cards I made for Chocolate Baroque's TV shows on Hochanda last month. This first card features one of these pretty new tree stamps called O is for... using Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink and then heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.  I coloured it using my Distress Inks in Twisted Citron and Lucky Clover used together for the leaves, and Brushed Corduroy for the trunks and some Blueprint Sketch with a little of the green and well watered down to soften it, and more of the greens for the foreground grass.  I used a sentiment from the
Remembrance Tree set and split it into two placing one bit at the top and the rest at the bottom, also stamped with the Versafine Clair and heat embossed with the Clear Gloss EP.

I did add an extra tree to the scene placing it to the left and did it such that I didn't have to mask anything.  Doing it in my Misti helped me to work out approimately how much of the tree would be needed to fill the space and I stamped it gradually until I had the tree looking right and filling the space nicely.  This Versafine Clair stays wet longer and allowed me to do all this and still heat emboss it, though I did this as an after thought so the rest of the scene had already been heat embossed.  I finished the topper by die cutting it with a pierced rectangle die.

I then moved on to the background which I die cut with a slightly bigger pierced rectangle.  I then added a border using the numbers from the Small Graph Paper set repeated along the top and bottom, and then added the little tree from the O is for set, stamping and heat embossing with the same black Versafine Clair ink.  I used the two green distress inks also used on the topper blended around the edges and then mounted it all on to a white card raising up the topper using some craft foam for dimension.

My next was made using stamps from across the sets.  I made a background with Brushos in Orange and Brown and whilst it was drying I stamped the new Freedom Flower in Versafine Clair Nocturne ink and the words I inked up with Versafine Habanero which worked pretty well.  I then heat embossed it with WOW Clear Gloss EP.  I now finished the flower with Scarlet Brusho added with a waterbrush.  I cut it out and stamped over it with the spatter stamp from Butterfly Mind using some Ripe Persimmon DI. 

I then found a piece of black card and I stamped the plain film strip from Butterfly Mind using Versamark and heat embossed it with WOW Opaque Bright White EP.  I cut the background down to the finished size of 61/2" square and I used some more habanero with the splatter stamp from the same set and just stamped it randomly.  I took the mesh/net square from the Small Graph Paper set and stamped and heat embossed this, again with the black Versafine Clair, and then took the flora definition stamp from F is for and did it twice top and bottom and filled the side in with the chain strip but didn't emboss these.   I then decided to darken the edges of the background with some Salty Ocean DI applied with a blending sponge and a bit more Ripe Persimmon inside that.   I added some more splatters also using Ripe Persimmon, and I finished by adding a sentiment from F is for at the bottom using the Nocturne ink and heat embossed again with the WOW Clear Gloss EP.  I then put the card together as you can see.

This last card for now features another new stamp called Remembrance Tree which I decided to use in a winter scene.  I placed the tree and stamped and embossed it with Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink  heat embossed with WOW Clear Gloss EP.  I decided to have a nice bright sky so got out my Distress Inks and started with the Wilted Violet, then Salty Ocean and finishing at the horizon with the Chipped Sapphire applied using a waterbrush and the first two colour starting at the top with diagonal strokes and then finishing with the darkest colour along the horizon.  I added very diluted Wilted Violet and Salty Ocean as a shadow under the tree and finished with a sentiment  from Let's Get Festive set of sentiments applying the same Nocturne Ink and then heat embossed again using the Clear Gloss EP.

Finally I added some snow on the branches and snowflakes with a Sigma Gel Pen and mounted it on to a piece of dark blue card before mounting it on to the white base card.

Thank you for joining me today and I hope to see you again soon.  This is an appropriate card to finish with as I want to wish my followers and everyone who visits me here a very:

   MERRY CHRISTMAS
and a
    HAPPY NEW YEAR