Swinging from a Tree... Whee!

Edited to add: If you would like to see the FULL TUTORIAL on how to make this card, click HERE to see that post!

Hi all and welcome to day 3 of MFTeasers! Today, we are featuring the new Pure Innocence stamps from MFT! You already know how much I LOVE these and this month is NO exception! There will be FIVE new Pure Innocence stamp sets available on January 6th @ 10 PM EST, along with MANY others! You won't want to miss it!

I don't say this very often, but I LOVE the card I am showing you today. That's ok to say, right? It took me hours to complete and I am so happy that I achieved the look I was going for.

I knew I wanted blue skies all around, so I started with the Love Me Do patterned paper from My Mind's Eye that I got from Jacksonbelle Embellishments (I highly recommend shopping from her!). I knew I wanted to have her swinging from a tree, so I free-hand cut a tree trunk. I used my small oval punch from SU to create a hole in the tree. My initial idea had a little bird or something peeking out the hole, but I couldn't find anything in the same style/scale, so I abandoned that idea, but kept the dimension in the tree anyway.

I stamped the Pure Innocence girl in Memento Tuxedo Black, colored her with Copic markers and paper-pieced her dress using another pattern from the Love Me Do collection. I then cut the entire image out. I opted to not cut the tiny pieces out in between the swing ropes because I was afraid I would mess it up or bend the image. Instead, I opted to color the blank space with my BG10 Copic and it blended in just fine with the background paper I chose. The rope wasn't long enough to reach the ground and it looked a bit "off" so, I stamped the image again and colored and cut out JUST the ropes. I then adhered the two sections of rope together with a small dab of Judikin's Diamond Glaze and set it aside to dry. While that was drying, I thought of what a Utopian scene I was creating... and no utopia is complete without a white picket fence, so I used my newish Martha Stewart deep border punch to create the fence. I wanted to add some dimension to the fence, so I cut a 1/2" strip of white card stock to adhere to the bottom of the fence.

I knew I wanted my Pure Innocence girl to actually swing, so I created something similar to a spinner card, but instead of placing just a single pop dot (dimensional) between the 2 pennies, I added a STRIP of foam adhesive (some foam strips I purchased at Hobby Lobby). I cut the strip long enough to where it stabilized the "spinner" enough to slide inside of spin. I may try to post a tutorial showing you how I did this. If you would like to know, please leave a comment. :) I "trapped" the end of the ropes on the swing between 2, 3/4" pieces of card stock using red line adhesive dots and then adhered the whole contraption to the top penny on the slider.

That enabled the swing to slide left and right. Below are two pictures showing you what the card looks like with the swing in the left and right positions.

Swinging Left:

Swinging Right:

Of course the cover for my sliding mechanism is the tree top. Here are the basic tools I used to create the tree top:

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  EK Success leaf cluster punch that I HAD to have after seeing Cindy Haffner using it
  
  
  
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  The largest flower in the Nestabilities set: Blossom
  
  
  
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  Red line punchable sheet (the negative portion of the piece I punched it shown)
  
  
  

To start, I die-cut the tree top using the Nestabilities and Certainly Celery card stock. Then, I punched a large circle out of the red line punchable sheet. I punched what seemed like a zillion leaf clusters out of celery card stock. *note to self: stop pinching yourself with the new-fangled punches.

I placed the adhesive on the die-cut "blossom" and then starting in the center, began to place my leaf clusters (stem in) around the shape. I continued to adhere them overlapping quite a bit as I went. Toward the center I had a section that was sunken in as it was the last section I covered, so I placed a 3/4" circle of adhesive in the space and then adhered more leaf clusters to it so the center of the tree would be as full as the outer edges. There was a tiny bit of sticky adhesive left showing, so I dabbed the whole tree top with powder and then blew off the excess with my air compressor. I adhered it to my tree trunk over the sliding mechanism using more foam strips.

I just HAD to use the adorable sentiment that it comes with, so I finished off the inside:

Pose to the left!

Pose to the right!

Confession: I have even MORE photos of this card, but I think I've blabbed enough about it. LOL

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Want to see more MFTeasers using the FIVE newest Pure Innocence sets? You can view the complete list of designers participating in today's peeks HERE on Kim's blog. This set and MANY more will be available on January 6th @ 10:00 PM EST on the MFT site HERE in the Brand Spankin' New category.

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Stamps: Start the Day with “Whee”! Pure Innocence by MFT (available on January 6th @ 10 PM EST

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper: White, Smoky Black, Love Me DO by My Mind's Eye, Certainly Celery, Kraft

Accessories: leaf cluster punch, Nestabilities, 3/4" circle punch, foam strips, red line dots, red line tape, red line dimensionals, red line punchable sheets, SU small oval punch, Martha Stewart deep edge punch, Janome sew mini, Copic markers