Nature View Birthday - Stampin' Up! Picturesque

   I've held onto this card for a bit so that the recipient wouldn't see it before his birthday so now I can share it for Testosterone Tuesday.  Guy cards can be hard but you can never go wrong creating a card that is geared toward one of their particular interests.  My father-in-law loves nature and the outdoors and appreciates a good walk or hike so I decided to use the Picturesque stamp set and a few others to make an outdoors scene to celebrate his birthday.

  I started this card with a Basic White thick base, then used a piece of the Enjoy the Journey DSP as the next layer.  This paper pack is really adaptable for cards as well as scrap pages with the larger scale "mountain view" designs and smaller geometric patterns on the opposite sides.  I used a mountain view piece in greens and blues as it echoes the stamped panel in the forefront.

  To create the stamped panel I first blended Garden Green ink heavily onto the bottom of a Stitched Rectangle.  Then I stamped the "pine tree" frame, filled in the other trees with stamped off Garden Green.  The next step is adding the distant "river/mist" which I did using stamped off Coastal Cabana for a very light effect.  To blend the "sky" at the the top of the panel I very lightly blended Coastal Cabana ink so there wasn't any stark bit of white showing.  Finally, to complete the scene I added the distant mountains in stamped off Garden Green and a few die cut clouds from the Greatest Journey dies.

  To fill in the lower portion of the rectangle pattern I stamped 2 groups of pine trees from the Greatest Journey stamp set with one being stamped off for some variation and then layered them giving a nice spot to add the sentiment from Go To Greetings stamped on Coastal Cabana in Garden Green ink.  I flagged the ends, added some "man ribbon" aka linen thread and then popped it on dimensionals.  A few Elegant Faceted gems add just a hint of sparkle around the sentiment.

  Thanks for looking! Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Picturesque, Greatest Journey, Go To Greetings

Ink: Garden Green, Coastal Cabana

Paper: Basic White, thick, Basic White, Enjoy the Journey DSP, Coastal Cabana

Accessories: Stitched Rectangle dies, Greatest Journey dies, dimensionals, linen thread, Elegant Faceted gems