Birthday Tree Mojo

I have a crazy week going on right now. I am the Song Leader for my church's VBS. So I know all of the Crocodile Dock songs by heart and have to teach the kids motions to some of them (about 7 out of 10 of them). It is really very fun, especially when the kids get into it. I will tell ya though, I am getting my exercise in with these songs and the motions...I feel the more animated I am, the more the kids will participate...so believe me when I say I am a workin' up there! I actually am tempted to wear my heart rate monitor one of these times, just to see how much I am workin'. Plus in addition to all of that, we have a big camping weekend this weekend, so i am trying to get laundry and packing done. Ahhh! Oh well, it makes for a fun, but fast summer!

So let me get to the task at hand here, huh?! This is my take on the current Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge #98 (see the sketch below for reference). I needed a card for my loving husband whom will be turning 35 on Thursday...oh yeah one more thing to add to the week! I have very little true masculine stamps, so I turn to trees a lot for them. So low and behold, my hubby is getting a tree card! I turned the sketch to make it vertical and so it would fit with my tree. This is the Season of Friendship stamp set (so glad to see it made it into the new catalog!). I stamped the leaves in Mellow Moss and Always Artichoke randomly and cut out with Circle Nestabilities. I sponged the edges with Sahara Sand and layered it on a Sahara Sand circle. My tree was stamped in Chocolate Chip ink and cut out along with a bunch of leaves. The tree and circles (I like how the circles seem to almost make up the shape of the tree with the occasional stray leaves) were popped up on a square of Bashful Blue reverse-embossed (meaning I just flipped it over) with the D'Vine Swirl Cuttlebug embossing folder. All of that is on a square of patterned paper from the To the Nines Collection. Finally the card was finished with some hemp twine and a Happy Birthday greeting (from Papertrey Ink's Women of Life set).

Ok that is it for me...should probably get packing or maybe just sleep. Thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!

The Engineering Details

Stamps - Season of Friendship, Women of Life (Papertrey Ink); Paper - Mellow Moss, Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue, Sahara Sand, Whisper White, To the Nines DSP; Ink - Chocolate Chip, Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke, Sahara Sand; Accessories - Circle Nestabiltites (Spellbinders), D'Vine Swirl Embossing Folder (Cuttlebug Provo), Hemp Twine, dimensionals