The Stamp Review Crew: Festival of Trees

Welcome to another Stamp Crew Review Blog Hop!  We share our take on a selected stamp set every first and third Monday.  This week we are using a classic stamp set from the main catalog, Festival of Trees, which coordinates with the Tree punch.  If you are following the blog hop order, you have just come from the super fabulous blog of Nikki Spencer.  She always has such fun projects!

I wanted to focus on using this set for something other than a Christmas card, perhaps a winter card.  I love making winter cards in January!

I used Freshly Made Sketches #215 as a jumping off point for my card.  Hoping it would show up, I went a little crazy splattering the card with white acrylic paint.

Stamps: Festival of Trees; Paper: Whisper White, Season of Cheer DSP; Ink: Soft Sky, Island Indigo, Wisteria Wonder, Mossy Meadow; Accessories: White 3/8" Glitter ribbon, Silver sequin trim, Banner Triple punch, Watercolor brush, Sponges, White acrylic paint, Post-It Notes.

Giving a snowy branches look a try, this card was inspired by Heather Telford.

This card uses the shadow stamping technique, stamp in Versamark and slightly offset Basic Black inks and then heat embossing with clear powder.  It also uses the reflection technique.  And I just can't stop splattering... sorry!

Stamps: Festival of Trees; Paper: Night of Navy, Whisper White; Ink: Soft Sky, Marina Mist, Island Indigo, Basic Black Archival, Versamark; Accessories: Clear embossing powder, 3/4" Circle punch, Sponges, Watercolor brush, White acrylic paint, Post-It Notes, Softly Falling EF, Big Shot, Dimensionals.

Although I really like realistic images, I wanted to give another neglected image a try... the modern tree image.  There were a lot of iterations on what colors and layout is best for a modern Christmas card.  I don't really live in the modern art world, so I can't say I nailed it, but you get the idea.

I think of a modern card with clean lines, and I kinda muddied it up with the embossing, so I decided to go without a sentiment.  This is just typical for me anyway.  I'd much rather convey a feeling in a scene on a card front and leave the sentiment to the inside.  You could use this card for a winter card, but I couldn't help myself from blinging up one of the trees.  This card uses the color combination from Sunday Stamps #115.

Stamps: Festival of Trees; Paper: Pool Party, Bermuda Bay, Basic Gray, Very Vanilla, Home for Christmas DSP; Ink: Pool Party, Bermuda Bay; Accessories: Bermuda Bay baker's twine, Rhinestone jewels, Tree punch, 2-1/2" Circle punch, Softly Falling EF, Circles Collection framelits, Big Shot, Dimensionals.

Now make sure you check out the next stop to see what lovelies Deb Currier has put together for us with this week's stamp set.