Have you ever purchased a stamp set for one particular purpose with no thought of what else you would use it for? Well, this week's featured stamp set was one of those purchases for me.
I bought the Nuts About Squirrels stamp set for one reason only. When I was making my Remembering Baxter Scrapbook, I knew I wanted to include a page about Baxter's relationship with the Bad Ol' Squirrels. If you followed my series late last year where we journeyed down memory lane with Baxter, you may have seen the page where I used this stamp set.
And honestly, other than for Baxter's Scrapbook. I have used this stamp set maybe one other time. So, this week I decided it was time to see what other ideas I could come up with using the Nuts About Squirrels stamp set.
Since squirrels like to hang out in trees, it seemed fitting that I try to incorporate the Tree Rings Dies and the coordinating Hybrid Embossing Folder into my "squirrel" project, and today's card is the card I came up with.
To create the background for this card I used the Tree Ring die as a mask. I laid the die over Crumb Cake cardstock and then with my Sponge Dauber and a little Soft Suede ink I inked around the inner edges of each tree ring. I then aligned the rings in the Tree Rings Embossing Folder and embossed the cardstock.
The common brown squirrels that we have where I live were not showing up very well on my tree rings, so I decided I would make red squirrels. I was fairly sure there was such a thing, but since I've never seen one, I consulted my friend Google to make sure there really is such a critter. And, yes, they are real, but I also learned that there are only about 140,000 of them left, and they are mostly in Europe and Asia. Here in the US, they can be found in Alaska, the Rocky Mountains, and on the east coast north of Georgia.
OK, enough about red squirrels... Since the pictures of them looked sort of rust colored, I decided to use Cajun Craze. Close enough! But no matter the color, I know Baxter would not have liked them!
The bottom squirrel's name is Cajun and the one up on the tree branch that looks a little mischievous, I decided to name Craze. Doesn't Craze look like he is ready to pounce on Cajun and steel his nut?
The majority of the greenery on the card was made with the Twigs and Sprigs Embossing Folder and Die. What a quick and effortless way to get lots of Twigs and Sprigs all with one run through the Stampin' Cut & Emboss Die Cut Machine!
I made my Twigs and Sprigs from Granny Apple Green cardstock and then used a sponge dauber to highlight the embossed areas a bit with Granny Apple Green ink. It added some depth to the leaves.
You will also see some little copper leaves tucked among the sprigs to add just hint of shimmer and shine. It's hard for me to not add at least a little sparkle to a card. These Leaves Trinkets are retired, but I still have some left, so I decided to use them.
I let Craze visit the inside of my card and Cajun was happy to be on the envelope. What do you think about my masculine birthday card? At least now I can say I used the stamp set for more than Baxter's Scrapbook Page. I hope you'll come back to see what else I come up with this week.
If you would like a detailed tutorial for today's card, you can download a copy by using this link.
The currently available products that I used are listed below.
Product List
