Branching Out Again

Happy November!  I find it so hard to believe that Thanksgiving is right around the corner and Christmas is racing along right after it!  Where has this whole year gone?  I feel like I've frittered too much of it away and really need to buckle down these last two months of this year to get some of my goals accomplished.  Do you feel the same way?  One of the things I need to accomplish is getting a handle on making my Christmas cards.  I'm usually much farther along by this time of the year.  So, let's get going.

Today I've returned to the Branching Out bundle.  I totally love the dies for the set, and the stamps are just as great.  I've always loved the back-to-nature look of pine branches on Christmas cards.  Either that or trees tend to be my go-to images, so this fits right in.  This card was not only fun to do but was really fairly quick to make.  This could easily be done in a production line if you have piles of cards, or maybe only a half dozen to make.  Let's get started.

The base for the card is Basic White Thick cardstock that measures 8 1/2" x 5 1/2".  It's scored at 4 1/4" and folded in half.

The Basic White layer was cut next.  It is cut with the 4th largest die of the Branching Out die set. I love both the shape and the stitching on these dies.  

Now for the stamped images.  I started with the smaller branch in the set but didn't even stamp the entire branch on this piece.  First, I stamped the longer section of branch to the left side using Early Espresso ink.  Then just a small section of the stamp added another branch to the design.

The triple pine needles stamp was used to add the Shaded Spruce needles.  You can see that I stamped two or three times without reinking to fill in each needle cluster.

The single pinecone that I used was first inked with Pecan Pie ink, then the edges were rolled in Early Espresso ink before stamping.  This gives them more color variations.

The sentiment comes from the Snowy Delights stamp set.  It's stamped with Secret Sea ink.  Looking at this layer, it looked a little bare at that point.  Using the snowflake cluster from the Snowy Delights set, I stamped the background with Cloud Cover ink.  To get the snowflakes where I wanted them, some places have only two snowflakes inked up before stamping.

At this point, a spattering of Wink of Stella was added to the design.  I thought it would continue the snowfall look of it along with a little extra sparkle.

A layer of Secret Sea cardstock was cut with the 2nd largest Branching Out die.  This gives a nice wide border to frame the stamping.  The layers are attached with adhesive, then are added to the card front with Dimensionals for height. 

The inside of the card was stamped to bring the outside design into the inside.  The sentiment is from last year's Greetings of the Season set.  It's stamped with Secret Sea ink.

The same branch stamp was used to stamp partial branches where I wanted, but they were off-stamped before adding to the card.  The Shaded Spruce pine needles were also off-stamped before stamping.  Likewise, the pinecones were inked, rolled, and off-stamped before adding to the design.  

It's very hard to see in the picture, but there are the same snowflake clusters added to the design.  They are inked with Cloud Cover ink then off-stamped before adding.  They are almost too light to see so I might not add them the next time I make this card.

I thought a bow would finish the design off nicely.  After trying several ideas, a double length of the Black & White & Gold Baker's Twine was used to make a bow for the card.  It's attached with a Mini Glue Dot at the top of the stamped layer.

For the very last item, three Pecan Pie and Clear Ribboned Dots were used to add a subtle bit of accent to the design.

Well, what do you think?  I just love this card idea and think I need to make a few more of these cards for Christmas.  I really love the colors and design.  Yes, I can see me sending out a number of these for Christmas.  Time to get stamping!

Thanks for sharing some of your precious time with me today.  Hope you're inspired and want to either make this card just like I did or maybe use the layout with different stamps to make your very own special card!  Whichever way you do it, I hope you have fun creating and sharing your ideas with others.  

Happy stamping and creating,

Sharon