With Deepest Sympathy

Here's my card for this week's Muse challenge.  I loved the look of the white trees on Lyndal's card, so for my version, I used a smaller tree image along with more white space for a softer, less dramatic look.

 I created a soft backdrop for the trees using several different distress inks on a white cardstock panel.  I had a few false starts before coming up with the background you see here.  I tried to emboss the trees so they'd stand out more, but the embossing powder kept sticking to the background, even after drying it with a heat tool and rubbing it with my embossing buddy.  So, after ruining a few sponged panels, I gave up and just went with the subtly stamped trees.  The image is from Papertrey Ink's Through the Trees set.  I took another photo from a different angle that shows the trees a little better and added it to the bottom of this post.  Photography is not one of my strengths . . .

I paired the trees with the "with deepest sympathy" sentiment from the Words of Comfort stamp set.  It was stamped in brown ink on a piece of vellum.

To frame the image, I cut an opening in a white cardstock panel.  I adhered the image and sentiment panel behind the opening.  A narrow green cardstock frame sets it off from the rest of the white panel.  I adhered the finished panel to a green card base matching the frame around the image.

Materials Used:
Through the Trees and Words of Comfort stamp sets, Spring Moss cardstock (Papertrey Ink); Scattered Straw, Mustard Seed, Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean, and Broken China distress inks (Ranger); white pigment ink (WPlus9); Memento Luxe Rich Cocoa ink (Tsukineko); white cardstock (Michaels); white vellum (The Paper Company)