Sorry for the awful pun but I am simply in love with the new Rooted in Nature Stamp Set from the Stampin’ Up! 2018/2019 Annual Catalogue.  I must say right now that I didn’t want to like this set, I thought that it was a little too like others that I have, most notably Lovely As A Tree, and what’s with that huge slice of tree trunk?

Well, while I didn’t want to like the set, it was one of the ones we were given to play with at a Stampin’ Up! event I attended in Connecticut last month, and I was pleasantly surprised.  Yes it has some similarities to Lovely As A Tree, but in no time at all I realised that it would compliment Lovely As A Tree and I really wanted to add Rooted In Nature to my collection.

Since getting the set it has not left my desk in my craft studio as I keep coming up with new ways to use it and new projects to create.  So today I thought I should show you something I designed for a recent Demonstrator only event but I’m also including it in an upcoming class for my customers.

I took a simple wooden frame and began by inserting a piece from the beautiful new Nature’s Poem Designer Series Paper (DSP) Pack.  These leaf skeleton images are simply gorgeous and the DSP pack contains two different colour versions that I’m sure you’ll see a lot of in the coming weeks and months.

With the frame prepared I took some Thick Very Vanilla Card and used Tranquil Tide ink to stamp the triple leaf cluster 6 times, before using a Sponge Dauber to lightly tap a little Tranquil Tide ink over the images.

The large tree image was inked up with Tranquil Tide for the leaves and Soft Suede for the trunk and stamped onto Thick Very Vanilla Card.

Finally the ‘Be strong Be happy Be you’ sentiment (also from the Rooted in Nature Stamp Set) was stamped onto Thick Very Vanilla Card with Tranquil Tide ink.

TIP – When stamping images and sentiments that will be cut and layered, I try to use thick card as they are more sturdy and less prone to flex.  I’ve also been known to cut several identical pieces and glue them together to create a similar effect.

Taking all my stamped pieces over to my Big Shot and Magnetic Platform, I started by cutting out the sentiment using the #2 circle die from the Stitched Shapes Framelits (counting from the smallest up).  Then the 6 sets of leaves and the large tree were cut out using dies from the coordinating Nature’s Roots Framelits Dies.

The final piece of stamping was that large tree trunk slice.  I inked up the image using Soft Suede ink and the as soon as I had stamped it onto some Thick Very Vanilla Card I immediately sprinkled a very light dusting of Gold Stampin’ Emboss Powder over the wet ink and then shook off the excess.  The remaining embossing powder was melted using my Heat Tool on 2 (high) and I was left with a very subtle gold speckled finish.

The large tree trunk is the only one of the 10 images in the Rooted in Nature Stamp Set that does not have a coordinating die, but that’s because it’s so easy to cut out with Paper Snips, which is exactly what I did.

Using Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) I attached the tree slice to the bottom left corner of the photo frame and then added one of the triple leaves.  The large tree came next, fixed with Stampin’ Dimensionals, followed by the sentiment and two more triple leaves.  To add a touch of bling I used Mini Glue Dots to add one of the copper triple leaf accents from the new Leaves Trinkets to the frame, tucked under the edge of the sentiment.

All that was left were three triple leaf images and I fixed these in the top right corner of the frame, the first one with liquid glue and the last two layered on top with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

To complete the project I tied a simple bow using some of the Grapefruit Grove twine from the Nature’s Twine pack and added that to the leaves with a Mini Glue Dot.

There’s so much I love about this project, the colours, the shapes, the sentiment.  It’s hard to focus on just one thing.  What do you think?

Please do join me again tomorrow to ‘sea’ what new sneak peek project I have for you.