Wedding Favor Project

When I was thinking of what wedding favors we could have nothing fit better than giving everyone tree seedlings. I love the idea of so many tiny trees getting a start somewhere in the world because of our wedding. I've even gone as far to imagine getting to see them 20 years from now in one of our friend's yards, *sigh* it touches my little green heart. There are several places online to get seedlings but they are all about $2+ each, which doesn't fit with my budget when you multiply that by 115 potential guests. So I thought, well I have a few months why not try to grow them ourselves? Now I know there's a big possibility they won't grow or will be really tiny when August rolls around but hey for $8 it's worth a try! 

I ordered 120 Douglas Fir seeds from Whatcom Seed Co in Oregon and they arrived last week. Little did I know Douglas fir seeds need to be cold stratified, which this time of year means the seed have to be put in the fridge for 30 days to mimic the fall frosts. I soaked them overnight and today I put them in a small bag of soil and put them in the fridge. Now the waiting begins.

My First Stampscape Attempt

Ok - here it is. I actually think it turned out pretty well. I love how you can stitch these scenes together! I used the lakeside cove stamp and the rocky mountain stamp, both from Stampscapes. I stamped both in the middle and then partially stamped them on the ends so they extend over the whole piece of paper (this is a 4x6). I didn't go overboard on the colors because I was afraid of going too far. I just slowly added more layers of color as I got more comfortable with how it was turning out. For the clouds I used the paper towel techinique that Sandy Hulsart shows in her YouTube video. I wish I could just buy every Stampscape stamp and all the ink colors - there are so many possibilities! I have three stamps that weren't used in this scene and I'm excited to see what I can make with them.

                                          

Here's attempt number two. I used Babbling Brook and the large tree stand from the Lakeside Cove set. I wasn't really sure where I was going with this and ended up overdoing the clouds - I continued to add the blue color on the edges and I think it panned out.

Browse through the Stampscapes Gallery - it's amazing what people can do with these.

Stamps!

My newest obsession is rubber stamps. I stumbled across a local specialty stamp store a few months ago and was amazed by all the options and how intricate some of them are. I bought several stamps with the idea that I might be able to use them in designing wedding invitations as well as make cards for friends & family. I've been making several cards and gift tags.

I love all the woodsy ones which lead me to stampscapes. I first found them on Sandy Hulsart's blog. She has amazing artwork with stampscapes and several how-to videos! I ordered the Lakeside Cove set and am so excited to start using them. I bought them unmounted so I am impatiently waiting for the glue to dry now that I have mounted them on wooden blocks made by my dad. I'll be posting my first attempts at stampscape scenes soon.