Easter chicks - a Partial Case

I have seen the little chicks made using the Bird Builder punch on various cards on Pinterest, and wanted to make a similar card.  The card closest to the one I partially cased was made by Laura Lipe.

I did a few things differently, however.

The chicks were supposed to be made by refeeding the punched bird from the bird builder punch, but I had a great deal of difficulty with that, so I trimmed the bird down by hand.  The wings were made using the Scallop oval punch and attached to the body with a dimensional. The chicks and wings were sponged with Crushed Curry ink.  A Tangerine Tango marker was used to colour the beak.

I know, the feet look a little odd.  I punched some leaf sprigs in Tangerine Tango from the Bird Builder punch, removed one of the leaves, and the remainder were trimmed to form the feet.  I don't think I succeeded very well.  They were sponged with Soft Suede before attaching them to the chick with a glue dot.  The chicks were adhered to the card front using a dimensional.

The grass in the background was made by an "oldie but goodie" stamp set "Inspired by Nature", stamping first with Wild Wasabi and a second time with Old Olive.  Then with a sponge dauber the ground was sponged with Wild Wasabi.

The eye is a black rhinestone which I saved from Halloween several years ago.

Three scallop circles adhered together at angles was used to make the clouds in the sky.  Marina Mist ink was used for that.

The sentiment is from "Delightful Dozen", also a retired set.

Here are the supplies I used:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Heliconia Flower punch art Easter Card

I've been wanting to making one of these Heliconia flowers since I saw in on Ann Fitzgerald's blog.  It is made using the Bird Builder punch, and if you look closer you can see the body of the bird. 

To make the Heliconia flower, punch 8 birds in whisper White, using the Bird Builder punch.  Snip off the beat, and the extra tail on the underside of each bird.
Sponge the top of the bird with Melon Mambo, followed by a layer of Daffodil Delight, and then Wild Wasabi on the lower body of the bird (including the tail. Some birds need to be sponged with the body facing in one direction, and some facing the other direction (4 of each I believe)
I first cut a small piece of Always Artichoke to build the flower on.
Then starting at the top, add the birds upside down, overlapping the bodies as indicated.

The Leaf was hand cut by folding a piece of Always Artichoke in half and cutting out the leaf shape on the fold. It was lightly sponged with Always Artichoke ink. Then with a stylus, I marked in the center of the leaf and the leaf veins.  Tombo glue was used to attach the leaf behind the flower.

Here are the supplies I used:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Easter Blessings

Easter is not far away, and it will soon be time to mail cards off to my family and friends.  This is one of the few cards I have made so far.

Stamp: Easter Blessings, Bloomin Marvelous (SAB)
Inks: Baja Breeze, Island Indigo, Daffodil Delight, Black Stazon
Papers: Pretty in Pink, Whisper White, Sunshine and Sprinkles DSP, Lucky Limeade
Accessories:Delicate Design Folder, Bird Builder punch, rhinestones, 1/2" Certain Celery seam binding (retired), small butterfly punch, Oval framelits, Scallop Oval nestabilities, Mat pack & Paper piercer, dimensionals

Triple Stamping - Bird on flower - Inspirational Challenge #1 Stampin' Fun and Friends

This Inspirational Challenge with Stampin' Fun and Friends required a bit of thinking on my part, but I finally opted for a triple stamping card using the colors of the challenge.  The colors I used:  Raspberry Ripple, Gumball Green, Summer Starfruit, Early Espresso. I couldn't resist putting a bird with the flower.

Here is my card:

 

Technique:

Flower: Punch 3 of the 1 1/4 Scallop circles in Summer Starburst and using the same color of ink,stamp one of the images of a flower center all over the scallops.  Then snip between every 2 scallops, curl petals downward, and attach 2 of them together with a dimensional- alternating petals.

Punch one each of the smaller flowers of the Boho petal punch.  Snip between petals, bunch the flowers up and glue one inside the other.  Attach this to the inside of the Summer Starburst flower.  Put a pearl at the center of the flower. Spritz with gold smooch.

Attach this to a Gumball Green Scallop circle the scallops of which had been pricked with the mat pack and paper piercer.

The leaves are made using the Sizzlets Little Leaves die

Bird:

On a piece of whisper white paper, sponge some Summer Starburst, and then sponge some Early Espresso above that.  Insert the Bird builder punch maneuvering it until you have the desired color combination for the bird.  The beak is a leaf from this punch. Sponge the top of the bird with Early Espresso, and the belly with Summer Starfruit. The wing is punched the same way and attached to the body of the bird using a dimensional.

A little pearl makes the eye

Stamp:  Mixed Bunch

Inks: Gumball Green, Summer Starburst, Raspberry Ripple, Early Espresso

Papers: Gumball Green, Whisper White, Summer Starburst, Early Espresso

Accessories: 1 1/4 Scallop circle punch, Scallop circle punch, Boho Blossom Punch, Gold smooch, Sizzlets little leaves die, pearls, 1/4 Early Espresso grosgrain ribbon, Bird builder punch, dimensionals, mat pack and paper piercer

Robin & the Season of Friendship

I have been home from the hospital for a week now and its been a tough week.  I've been in too much pain to be able to sit at my work table to create any cards. The spirit is willing, but the body has other ideas.
So I decided to re-post another of my favorite spring cards, a Robin in the Season of Friendship tree.
Last year I thoroughly enjoyed using the Bird Builder punch to create many species of birds.

Today's bird is a Robin - a bird well recognized in this neck of the woods.  Robins usually migrate south for the winter, but some have actually stayed behind to winter in my back yard - crazy bird!! But then its been a mild winter and an early spring.

Yesterday I had my morning coffee on the back deck and couldn't help look for my friend, and sure enought there he was up in the tree, creating that beautiful melody of his.

Stamps: Season of Friendship, You're a Gem
Inks: Soft Suede, Tangerine Tango, Early Espresso, Melon Mambo, Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, Early Espresso marker
Papers: Soft Suede, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Framed Tulips embossing folder, Crystal Effects, Stampin Dimensionals

Remembrance Day

Hope you all had a wonderful spooky Halloween!!  It was very quiet here - not too many children, but lots of big ones with big pillowcases.  I didn't even answer the door for them.  Some of the costumes were really cute.  One girl had on what looked like remnants of everything.  She apparently was dressed up as "left overs"  What a good one.
I really like the costumes the children made themselves v.s. the store bought ones.

The next holiday in Ontario occurs on November 11 - Remembrance Day.  I believe in the US  this day is referred to as Veterans Day. Correct me if I'm wrong. Another Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan, another one to remember.
Since the Poppy campaign begins today, I thought it suitable to design a card around that special flower, so, for this week's class I designed a Remembrance Day card,  with the focal point  a large red/orange poppy.  It's a very simple card (I usesd no stamps or inks) but effective and is very reflective of  this special memorial day.
The sentiment "Remembrance Day"  is computer generated.
After doing an internet search I found a poignant verse for the inside, a copy of which was made for each of the students. I'll include this verse at the end of this post.

Paper: Basic black, Whisper White, Poppy Parade, Old Olive
Accessories: Flower Builder Punch, Bird Builder Punch, Boho Blossom Punch, 1/2" circle punch, Dazzling details, dimensionals, 1 1/4" circle punch, pearls

To Make the Poppy:

1. Using the Flower Builder punch, punch 8 large flower petals in Poppy Parade
2. Punch one each of the smaller flowers of the Boho Flower punch in Basic Black
3. Lay these punchies on a water proof surface and spritz both sides lightly with water
4. Scrunch each up into a tight ball, and gently uncurl leaving a lot of the wrinkles in.
5. Let dry
6. Punch 3 branches in Old Olive using the bird Builder punch.
7. When dry, layer the petals on a 1 1/4" circle - 4 on the bottom, and 4 on the top.  I used a glue gun, but tombo glue works just as well - it just takes longer to dry.
8. Attach the larger of the black flowers in the center, then apply a dimensional.  
9. Curl the smaller flower over the top of the tombo glue top and place over the dimensional
10. Attach the leaves to the bottom of the flower. 
11. Apply dazzling details

Remembrance Day verse:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

-Ode to Remembrance, from "For the Fallen" by Laurence Binyon 

.

Get Well Wishes - Try Stamping' on Tuesday # 27 & Challenge 133

This card combines 2 challenges - Try Stampin on Tuesday here and Challenge 133 with the LNS group. "Are you feeling blue?" is the challenge with this Yahoo group.
Actually I could have used a card myself yesterday as it was emotionally a rough day.  Twelve days of being confined to the couch or my bed had finally taken its toll.  My son finally wheeled me out to sit on the front porch and it was wonderful to feel the breeze flowing through my hair and see all the color in my garden.

For this card I made some flowers using one of the balloons in the Up, Up & Away stamp set.

Stamps: Up, Up & Away, Teeny tiny Wishes
Inks: Island Indigo ink & marker
Papers: Island Indigo, Whisper White, Baja Breeze, Crumb Cake, Lucky Limeade, More mustard, Old Olive
Accessories: Scallop border punch, Mat Pack & Paper Piercer, Two Step Bird Punch, Lattice Die, Metallic brads, Scallop dotted ribbon (Old Olive), Oval punch, Dazzling diamonds, White gel pen, Circle die.

The flowers and leaves were attached to a lattice .

Here's a close up of the tubular flower, which I made by stamping the silhouette balloon stamp with Island Indigo, cutting it out, rolling it up, and inserting stamens made using a strip of More Mustard card stock.