Encircled in Nature Card

Hello my friends!  I hope you enjoyed your Easter celebrations.  There seems to be a few eggs still missing from both the indoor and outdoor egg hunts held here yesterday.  Thank goodness none of the eggs were real, just the plastic variety.  Heather hid them outside and got a little carried away.  Even after going for a walk with her once the boys gave up, we only found two more.  But that still means there are 4 more out there.  Funny thing is that the neighbor's hen laid an egg under one of the bushes and the boy's found that one instead. Hmmm.  What a crazy day!  After a month of totally thinking about Easter cards, little treat holders, etc. my mind needed a break.   So, I took several days off from even going into my stamp room.  Boy, was I ready to get back to it this morning!  I was able to finish two cards that I'd set aside while I thought about them, and even made a card idea that had been lurking around in that gray matter that pretends it's a creative brain every once in a while.  Whew!  Now it's time to sit down and write so I can share what I've been doing.  Today's card uses the Encircled in Nature Bundle.  It's an Online Exclusive item and I fell in love with it as soon as I laid eyes on it.  I been too busy to play with it because of all the Easter things I needed I needed to do, so now I was ready to give it a whirl.

This was so fun to play with and I have a trick or two to share with you.  I wasn't sure how easy it would be to line everything up the way I envisioned, so I used my Stamparatus.  I know we don't carry this anymore, but if you have one this is a terrific card to use it on.

The card layers used here are:

 Shaded Spruce   8 1/2" x 5 1/2"

 Pecan Pie           5 1/4" x 4"

 Basic White       5 1/8" x 3 7/8" and a scrap for the tag

Also cut a Vellum cardstock piece 5 1/8" x 3 7/8" which is the same size as the Basic White layer.

First thing was to figure out the size of the branch wreath.  It matched the size of the largest Stylish Shapes circles.  Position the die onto the vellum where you want it then die-cut the circle.  Keep the circle for another project and use the mask for this card.

Position the Basic White cardstock and the vellum piece on top of it onto the Stamparatus using the magnets.  Position the branch wreath in the correct spot on the vellum circle.  Open the Stamparatus, pull out the vellum but leave the white cardstock.  Stamp the wreath with Pecan Pie ink making sure you get a really good image.  Remove the branch and put away.  

Next, position the vellum mask in place again.  Using Balmy Blue ink and a large Blending Brush add a light layer of blue inside the circle.

Remove the vellum mask and line up the evergreen trees stamp on the circle, then close the lid to pick it up.  Open lid and ink the trees with Garden Green ink.  Stamp, then open.  At this time, I added some Shaded Spruce ink to the top 1/2" or so of the trees and stamped again.  The two greens are similar, but there is a difference that shows on the card.  You're done with the Stamparatus at this point.  You can do all this without the Stamparatus, but this just makes it easier to keep everything where it belongs.

The tree line die cut out one from Garden Green cardstock, and another from Shaded Spruce cardstock.  With a Blending Brush, Shaded Spruce ink was added to the edges of the Garden Green die-cut piece.  This was positioned and attached with "green glue".  The three trees on the left side of the Shaded Spruce die-cut were trimmed from the rest and cut a tiny bit shorter.  This was added to the Garden Green trees making sure they showed through on the placement.

A length of Black and Vanilla Large Check Ribbon was placed across the bottom of the card front and attached in the back.  

The smallest rectangle die from the Nested Essentials die set cut a Basic White tag.  The sentiment from the Encircled in Nature was stamped on the tag using Shaded Spruce ink.  This was placed across the band of ribbon using Mini Dimensionals above and below the ribbon to hold in place.

The inside of the card is Basic White cardstock.  A sentiment from the Notes of Nature set was added with Pecan Pie ink. 

A smaller tree line die was used to cut the tiny trees placed at the bottom of the card for an accent.

When trying to figure out if I wanted to add any bling, I was leaning toward the Swirl Dots in Pecan Pie that are part of the A Little Latte Collection that is an Online Exclusive.  I thought they would make a nice rustic touch. But then I noticed the Adhesive-back Dragonflies and Birds in the same section.  I thought the birds flying in the forest would be a perfect match.

So, there you have today's card.  I've needed to use quite a few masculine cards lately, so it was time to replenish my stash.  Hope you like this idea.  I have to say I'm pleased with how this first attempt with the Encircled in Nature set turned out.  It's pretty much what I was envisioning when I purchased it.

Thanks for stopping by today.   Hope you're getting back into a regular routine again.  Sometimes it's hard after all the hustle and bustle of a holiday to settle down and get back to work.

Happy stamping and creating,

Sharon