Blendabilities and Ornamental Pine

I have wanted to use a more versatile approach to Blendabilities and I think that I am getting a bit better!

Today I have tried to incorporate Blendabilities and the images from Ornamental Pine. Once again I have made two of each design ~ one a little more dressed up and the other a little plainer. . .

Here are today's shares:

For the first cards I stamped the leaves in Mossy Meadow on Whisper White card stock. The pine cones are stamped in Early Espresso on Crumb Cake card stock and I have highlighted areas with the White Gel Pen and fussy cut them and dimensionalised them on the leafy area.

Prior to adding the pine cones I coloured the background from the top right corner with Blendabilities. I faded from the medium Night of Navy colour through the Coastal Cabana tones - dark, medium and light. The blending isn't as smooth as I hoped but I was not unhappy with the overall effect.

I then stamped the background with the "fly poo spots" from the Gorgeous grunge set in Classic White Craft Ink. I wanted the suggestion of snow without too much ink.

The sentiment from the Ornamental Pine set is stamped in Island Indigo which I also mounted at the back of each card.  I added the sequins from the Frosted Sequins embellishment pack in the Holiday Mini Catalogue for a bit of bling and glamour.

Base card for the second creation is Garden Green, mounted with a piece of diamond Garden Green DSP from the Trim the Tree DSP Stack (daubed around the edges with Early Espresso ink).  The corners were rounded with the Project Life Corner Rounder Punch.

I heat embossed the pine leaves and cone in white embossing powder (the pine cone on a separate piece and fussy cut out). I then coloured the leaves with the Old Olive Blendabilities pens starting with the darkest and moving to the lightest overlapping all the time. I coloured the leaf stem in Mocha from the Skin Tone Blendabilities set.  The pine cone is coloured in with the darkest Crumb Cake Blendability pen and attached to the card with a glue dot.

The sentiment was stamped in Craft White Classic Ink on Garden Green and hand cut. I added the Linen Twine for texture and interest.

This card is very similar but with a different piece of DSP from the Trim the Tree DSP Stack - more Garden Green and less contrast. I changed the direction of the leaf stamp and added additional colour to the pine cone by using the Mocha and Bronze Blendabilities from the Skin Tone Set.  The sentiment was stamped on a piece of Very Vanilla card stock so that it contrasts more significantly.

The Ornamental Pine set isn't just for Christmas. Here I have used it in conjunction with my all time favourite set - Lovely as a Tree. I stamped the Lovely as a Tree horizon trees stamp in Memento Tuxedo Black ink, punched out a sun using the 1" Circle Punch and post-t notes.

I then coloured the sunset with Blendabilities from the Night of Navy, Rich Razzleberry and Pumpkin Pie Ranges. I simply blended these across the images. The post-it note masked the setting sun area (that's how I kept it white). The landscape was coloured with the Old Olive Blendabilities set.

To suggest looking at the sunset from trees in the forefront I stamped the leaf from the Ornamental Pine set across the top left hand corner. I married up the stamped image on the coloured card and the background using a Stampa-ma-jig.

The base card is Night of Navy mounted with Whisper White. I mounted the coloured, stamped image on Old Olive card stock and for the top card I actually mounted the whole card on a piece of Old Olive card stock for added weight and framing.

Enjoy!
Shanni