Baobab Beauty

Hello everyone,

A few years ago I had a request to make a couple of cards featuring indigenous African plants and animals. One of the stamps I used was this African baobab tree image and ever since this stamp is one of my favourites to create landscape and ethnic cards. This week the challenge at One-Layer Wednesday (OLW36) – Barely There  is to create a card as in Jennifer’s words “using a bare tree, or bare vegetation of some kind – that means no leaves, no needles, no buds, no flowers.  You can use as many images/sentiments/colours as you like, but you must use one plant image that is “bare”. My baobab tree (without leaves in winter!) stamp just fits perfectly for this challenge! 

The baobab tree is regarded as the largest succulent plant in the world and the stem may reach proportions of up to 28 m in girt and a height of 25 m -30 m.  Recent research techniques implicated that a tree with a diameter of 10 m may be as old as 2000 years. The tree is also called the upside-down tree as the branches look like roots. In South Africa it is found only in the warm parts of the Limpopo Province and during sunset these magnificent trees have breathtaking silhouettes against the African skies. In 1941 the African baobab was declared a protected tree under the Forest Act in South Africa. (More information available at Plantzafrica). 

Sorry, I was carried away by all the interesting facts about these trees, so back to how I made this card. I decided on black cardstock and the bleaching technique to “pop” the image. The image was stamped with VersaMagic “Midnight Black” ink pad and embossed with clear embossing powder. I added a line and sentiment with gold embossing powder. The stamp is from Great Impressions (South Africa)”Baobab Tree 831″ but unfortunately I don’t know the origin of the “Memories” sentiment stamp. I love how this card reflects the African  landscape.

I struggled to take a good photo as today is a cloudy and rainy day and I had to use the camera flash. Thanks for stopping by and looking at my card. Have a wonderful week and happy crafting.

Regards from South Africa,

Amelia