Hello Friend

Hope you're all having a good weekend! I'm back to cleaning -- took a little birthday weekend break but we're back at it now. It never seems to end does it? And we live in a little 2 bedroom apt so I can't even begin to imagine having to clean a house....

I wanted to create a simple card to send to a friend. I pulled out Asian Garden from WMS again. Adore it!

I love that you can customize the tree how you see fit and you can even perch items on the tree or hang things from it!

The backing does have a woodgrain pattern on it which you can't see in the photo... but the closeup is showing up ok.

Haha, so in her blog post, Claire mentioned the comb trick I like to do to mimic woodgrain. And I have to admit, I didn't think about it at all for use with Asian Gardens. I tend to be a "what do I see in front of me" crafter. And I had already cleaned my husband's comb and put it back... just kidding!

None of my husband's combs were harmed in the making of this card (and my dear dear hubs, if you read this, you will notice the photos use my little girly comb)

I thought I'd take some photos as I did it just in case you have a comb near by. And at worst case, I believe they're super cheap at your local drugstore.

1. Ink up your stamp. If you do multiple cards, I like to clean the stamp a little by rubbing it on my scrubber for cleaner lines (clean the comb too!!). Trust me on that... sometimes the lines carry over a little from inking to inking.

The ink doesn't matter. That said, I do like pigment ink better for this trick but I actually am using the Palette hybrid ink here.

2. Take a comb and just lightly run it across your stamp.

3. You can see your pattern. If its not perfect, no biggie. It's woodgrain, its not perfect in real life!
Try different sized combs for different effects -- if you're anything like me, you own a gazillion combs. You could also go over certain lines with a toothpick or needle to get some more detail.

If you miss a spot, just go back over it with your comb again.

There ya go! A simple way to get a wood effect and using something you can usually ask a hotel front desk for! (How did you think I got to own so many combs?)

I think a little stamp kissing on this trunk would be pretty neat as well -- like that lattice background from Picnic Patterns... hmm.... perhaps next week! :)