Heart-Apple Tree

This is the first card I made that I used my new lighting system to photograph.

I love the little picket fence that I punched out from a Martha Stewart paper punch.  It's kind of hard to tell, but I used cardstock that is a light gold color with tiny gold flecks.  The tree and the sentiment are rubber stamped, but the best part were the "apples".

The green apples are mini heart-shaped brads that I picked up from somewhere (probably when they were on sale - I loooove a good scrapbooking material sale!!), and the red apple is punched out of the same heart paper punch I used for my whale card. 

Here is a random picture of the brads I used (just in a different color), in case you don't know what they are.  

I punched appropriate-sized holes with my eyelet setter (see picture below), and fitted the brads through, securing them by opening up the prongs.

Here's the back of the cover, just to prove that I did indeed use brads, haha.

I spent a lot of time dreaming up the design of this card.  It came to me in bits and pieces of inspiration: First, I wanted to use the sentiment stamp because it was appropriate for the person I was gifting the card to.  Then, I thought of my tree stamp, and also suddenly remembered I have tiny heart brads that could be used for apples.  Contrast is lovely, so I thought it would be cute to add in one red heart for an apple.  And in rummaging through my patterned paper collection, I came upon my stash of picket fence punchouts that I had pre-punched a long time ago while watching television one night.

I love this card because it combines so many different elements and textures; I'm very pleased at how well they all came together!

I spent a ton of time on this one.  A common topic for discussion amongst my friends is what we would do if we won the lottery.  I invariably answer, trying to find some way of automating my card-making process so that each one doesn't take three hours!

One day.  Some day.