Serene birdie

Hi all!

I made this card last week for Beate's weekend sketch challenge (last weekend....). Sorry it took me so long to show it to you. :(

The card base (this is where I started this challenge) is chocolate chip (measures 4x8 1/2 - unusual size for me). If you read my earlier posts about where I start my creations...today was the base, mainly size. Cards of various sizes are becoming increasingly popular so I took on this challenge with open arms! And besides - I have dying to ink up my new level 2 hostess bundle Spring Solitude. Thats' right...a bundle! That means you get a stamp set as well as a coordinating wheel...love it!!!!

My left vertical panel is brocade blue stamped with the three flower image from Spring Solitude in brocade blue. I then took my matt pack and a pencil to mark three evenly spaced marks to punch holes for my jumbo eyelets. I grabbed my crop o dile and punched the three holes with the larger hole punch. Next I took my three antique brass jumbo eyelets and pushed them throught the holes. They are a snug fit, but not too tight by any means. With my crop o dile setter set on the setting c-3, I set the eyelets. (rule of thumb - setting A-1 for reguler sized eyelets, setting C-3 for jumbo eyelets.) And then the bling....I took three of the largest light green rhinestone brads from my set of ice round rhinestone brads and put through those eyelets. I have to tell you ....I LOVE THAT LOOK!

My main image panel starts with three squares of confetti cream. I inked the branch with my stampin write markers. I used chocolate chip for the branch and mellow moss with the edges outlined in always artichoke for the leaves. It is very hard to tell in the picture but the shading of the leaves looks real nice in real life. How did I do that? Well....I first colored in the entire leaf with my mellow moss marker and took the always artichoke marker and went around the edges of the leaves softly before stamping.

I inked my bird up with brocade blue and stamped off before aligning it with my stamp a ma jig on the branch.

Those main blocks are matted onto brocade blue and then placed on a thin mat of very vanilla to tie them all together. That was then matted onto mellow moss with just the bottom edge wheeled in the coordinating wheel that comes in the spring solitude bundle with brocade blue ink.

My hanging tag was made by stamping "happy birthday" from Amazing to Zany onto confetti cream and punching it with my 3/4 inch circle punch. I matted that onto a chocolate chip circle punched from my 1 inch circle punch. I then took my 1/16 handheld punch and punched a hole in the top and threaded linen thread through the hole. I tied a simple knot around my mellow moss panel with vanilla taffeta ribbon with the linen thread loop through the knot. That entire panel was mounted to my card with stampin' dimensionals.

Now to get to this weekend's challenge and my blogger's challenge that is supposed to be posted for today....oh my!

wow....that was long winded, huh?

I hope you like it....I really did. I am trying to break away from my standard way of stamping...stepping out of my usual comfort zone, so to speak. And you know what? I am liking the diverse projects that I am able to come up with....are you?