Double-Fronted Easel Card for Creative Creases #86

It's time for another fun challenge on the Creative Creases Challenge blog today where it's always anything goes with a fun fold project! I'm thrilled to be back as a Guest Designer again this time! We'd love to have you join the fun! Here's the link to Challenge #86: Anything Goes with a Fun Fold for Creative Creases #86 (secretstamper.com)

My father-in-law has a birthday coming up, so I thought I'd make a special card for him using a new-to-me fold called a Double Fronted Easel Card. The instructions came from Di's Den Stamping, and the YouTube video is here: #248 (24) Double Fronted Easel Card (youtube.com)

Once I chose the card design, I then went about deciding on a theme. I recently purchased the Garden Reverie Ensemble at Altenew, and it include a beautiful Chestnut tree layering die set as well as a birdbath set with several layered bird dies. I thought a couple of the birds would look nice sitting in my tree, so I set about die cutting everything and assembling the pieces. I used some water color paper I had done some spraying, splattering, and ink smooshing on with various shades of green for the 3 layers of foliage in the tree die set. For the tree trunk, I used some dark brown metallic card stock scraps I had in my stash. The birds were made of scraps of white card stock that I then colored using my Ohuhu alcohol ink markers. 

I chose some fun card stock with an outdoor theme that has a lot of foliage as well as pinecones and adorable mushrooms on it to decorate the card. My other layers used coordinating colors of cardstock. I adhered all the layers and assembled the card base before deciding I wanted something behind the tree to help it stand out better and not get lost with that pattern paper directly behind it. I die cut a frame and oval from SU!'s retired Framed Florets set and popped the oval up on foam tape. Then I popped the tree up on more foam tape and added in my two little birds. 

For the "Have a Tree-mendous birthday" sentiment, I created a print and cut using my Silhouette Design Studio software. I cut out the sentiment using my Silhouette Cameo 4 and then adhered it to the card using foam tape. 

For the back of the card, I added some woodgrain washi tape to the top part and then trimmed a piece of green card stock and stamped some foliage from SU!'s retired Forever Fern set using tone-on-tone so that my sentiment would stand out. The "No one deserves a happier birthday than you" sentiment is from SU!'s retired Flowering Tulips set. If you are interested in some great deals on retired Stampin' Up products, my friend Debbie Mageed has quite a few for sale here: My 2024 Secret Sale - Google Docs.

To finish the back of the card, I added 2 wooden birds that I colored with my Ohuhu markers and adhered using glue dots. 

Front view of the card: 

Close up of the tree and birds:

Side view:

View of the back:

What the card looks like when fully unfolded:

What the card looks like when folded flat to mail:

 Challenges I'm entering: 

Word Art Wednesday: ATG (1/5 for the week; 1/10 for the challenge; ends 7/17/24)

A Place To Start (hereisaplacetostart.blogspot.com): ATG (ends at the end of the month)

****Pammie's Inky Pinkies**** **********Challenges********** (pammiesinkypinkieschallenges.blogspot.com): ATG (ends 7/7/24) C10

Inspiration Station (inspirationstationchallenge.blogspot.com): The inspiration photo includes trees, and my card features a tree as the focal point 

Digi Choosday Cardmaking & Crafting Challenge: ATG

Crafts Galore Encore Challenge Blog (cardsgalorechallenges.blogspot.com): ATG