Postage Stamp Christmas Trees

Last week, Lauren shared this Instagram video by Katie Pertiet where she used stamp & ticket ephemera to collage and die cut a Christmas Tree.  

I knew I wanted to try the same technique with the postage stamps I have in my collection from the Postal Museum … if only I could remember where I moved them (I remember where I kept them for the longest time, but I repurposed that bin for something else, and now I can't find my envelopes of stamps).  I did however find a small bag of stamps I had picked-up at the Create/Exchange, so I made those work.

Lauren sent me a pro-tip to cut a mask of my tree die to use to help place the stamps.  I used a very old Sizzix Christmas Tree #2 Die Cut (does anyone make a metal die like this tree?).  Since it's an old-school die, it made it a bit trickier to position the die in the same place I had my mask, but I got close enough.

This was my first one.  I chose a combination of bird stamps (see tiny Tweetie Bird).

 

 

I added a bit of green ink a round the edges of the three and gold paint spatter.  I brushed off the gold paint from my brush onto a scrap of kraft cardstock, and then punched my star from that gold painted paper. I finished with a typed sentiment attached with foam tape.

 

 

Obviously my card for the Inspired By Challenge was inspired by the lovely Christmas Tree.

For my second one I used lots of horizontal stamps of various masculine images (boats, vehicles, etc.).  This time I added blue ink to the edges before the gold spatter.

 

 

I used a slightly larger stitched frame, but the same sentiment in blue.

 

 

I'm linking this card up at the Christmas Trees Challenge at Double D Challenges.  I'm also linking-up at the Stitching (Faux or Real) Challenge at Make My Monday.