Four Ways Friday #93 - Lovely As A Tree

I approached this week's Four Ways Friday with the Lovely As A Tree stamp set much the way I approach nature.  I believe that nature is beautiful all on its own, so I found it difficult to create highly embellished cards with these gorgeous nature images.  So instead, I kept it simple, simple, simple while still incorporating a few different techniques/ideas.  I hope you enjoy this simple approach to nature :)

A few stamps, a bit of ink, and a touch of Dazzling Details.  This is how I approached this first card.  I began with a Sahara Sand base and stamped the large tree in black.  Next I stamped the sentiment from Loving Thoughts.  The finishing touch was a bit of sparkle with some Dazzling Details.  Simple, graphic and bold.

You can add some whimsy to your cards by combining images from different sets.  This tree always reminded me of a drawing, so I decided to pair it with the pen from Established Elegance.  I colored the tree using a variety of Stampin' Pastels.  I love the soft color they give to an image.  The sentiment is from Loving Thoughts.  Imagine if I could draw like that...

I often forget about the gorgeous tone-on-tone effect you can get by stamping with Versamark and then heat embossing with clear embossing powder.  That is exactly what I chose to do for this card.  The image and sentiment (from Apothecary Art) were stamped with Versamark on Always Artichoke card stock.  I heat embossed with clear embossing powder and then adhered the panel to a Very Vanilla card base.  So simple and so beautiful.

If you are in the mood for a meditative exercise, cutting out this leaf image is for you!  I stamped the leaf image and cut it out with my paper snips.  I then colored it using cotton swabs and Stampin' Pastels.  I took the card base and ran it through the Big Shot with the oval Designer Frames embossing folder.  The leaves were popped up on dimensionals and the sentiment from Curly Cute was stamped in black.
I hope you've enjoyed this week's simple return to nature with the Lovely As A Tree stamp set.  I hope these simple ideas inspire you to see the beauty in simplicity :)  May you have a simply beautiful and creative weekend!!!!!