Thoughtful Branches love is a sheltering tree

I made this card for my 36th wedding anniversary for my husband.  I love the way it turned out and I hope he will too.  I wanted to make something extra special.

I started with a scrap piece of very vanilla cardstock and stamped some splatters on with the Touches of Texture (141934) in cajun craze, and crushed curry.  I then stamped the tree branches from Thoughtful Branches (143530) in Emerald Envy and another in Garden Green.  I cut both out with the tree top from the Beautiful Branches framelits dies (143438).  These are only available until August 31 and I highly recommend the bundle in which you can save 10%.  (144328). This is a very versatile set and will last the whole year through.  I used the balloon celebration stamp set (140675) to stamp a few clouds on a piece of whisper white cardstock to make the card front.  I then stamped the tree trunk from Thoughtful Branches onto the white cardstock after I had set down the tree top to judge the placement of the trunk.  I stamped the trunk in early espresso ink.  I then stamped the trunk onto a piece of chocolate chip cardstock in early espresso and used the coordinating die to cut it out.  I stamped one of each bird in the set using tempting torquoise with a little bit of dapper denim on the wing and delightful dijon on the beak.  I used smoky slate and a bit of sweet sugarplum on the other bird.  In order to shape my tree, I used adhesive foam strips (141825) in the middle section of the tree top and adhered the emerald envy tree on top of the garden green tree top to give it some dimension.  I used a little bit of snail adhesive on a couple of spots on the outside edges to the tree would appear rounded on the card.  Before placing the tree top on the card, I stamped some garden green splotches from the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set (130517) to make the tree seem extra full in the background.

From Sheltering Tree stamp set (137163) I used the swoosh to make the grassy area and used the stems and flower tops to make the flowers.  I also used these pieces on the inside of the card just to add some interest there as well.  The grass is stamped in pear pizazz, stems in garden green and flower tops in blushing bride.  I also used the sentiment friendship is a sheltering tree and used the selective inking technique NOT to ink the word friendship.  I used the word love from Thoughtful Banners (141614) to complete the sentiment to save love is a sheltering tree.  I punched hearts from the heart border punch out of blushing bridge and red glimmer paper (121790).  I finished off the inside of the card with a little stamping and a sentiment from Flourishing Phrases (141534).