Twofer Birds

I love birds as a theme for cards so had to squeeze in some time today to make cards for Darnell's Twofer Card Challenge:

Here's the Twofer photo:

I really love that bird stamp with the wonderful quote on its body.  The card on the left is a thank you card for my sister who has really inspired me to follow some of my passions.  The one on the right is a birthday card for a close friend who does bird watching.  The sentiments for the occasions are on the inside because I wanted to use the word stamps that came with the bird stamp.

First up:

I started with a piece of background I made at Loll Thompson's house using Jennifer Maguire's Distress ink monoprint technique (see video here).  It uses blue Distress ink with a leafy background stamp - this is the monoprint version (or what I think of as the negative version).  It came out a bit patchy so I decided to add some layering with the music background stamp and two of the words that came with the bird stamp.

The bird is stamped, heat embossed, and fussy cut, with its legs glued to the die cut branch and its body popped up with dimensional tape.  The whole panel is popped up on fun foam.

And the second card:

I put the bird stamp in my MISTI and coloured it with Distress markers, repeating until I was happy with the results.  Then I put the "happiness" stamp in the MISTI and got it close to the bird's feet to ground the bird.

I placed a leafy stencil over it and used a finger dauber to sponge around the bird with pale blue and pale green.

After I trimmed the panel into a square, I decided I needed something below the "happiness" stamp as I'd kept the stencil sponging above it.  So I wrapped twine around the bottom.  And then had an "ah ha" moment that it would be perfect on a kraft base - popped up on fun foam of course for some dimension.

I'm also adding it to Loll Thompson's new CAS Stencil Challenge:

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies for card 1:

Stamps - Fiskars "For the Birds" set, Impression Obsession music background, unknown leaf background stamp

Ink - various Distress blue inks, Adirondack Lake Mist, Vivid Cobblestone, Versafine Onyx Black

Paper - white and brown cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Sizzix branch die, clear embossing powder, foam tape, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:

Stamps - Fiskars "For the Birds" set

Ink - Memento Sky Blue, Distress Bundled Sage, Archival Jet Black

Paper - white cs

Size - 5.25" square

Accessories - Distress markers, Dina Wakely Little Birdies Leaf stencil, twine, fun foam