As I sat reviewing my new stamp sets, I chose the Best Birds to create a card.
I had a blue bird in mind and chose a scrap of watercolor paper to try out my hunch that Marina Mist and Dapper Denim was the combination I was seeking. I used my Kuretake Fude Water Brush Pen and reinker to paint a few strokes. The blues were perfect together!
Then, since I was also going to be stamping a branch, I tried out Wild Wasabi and Garden Green for the leaves and Tip Top Taupe and Soft Suede for the branch. These combinations also worked well.
I then consulted a downloadable PDF from Patty Bennett that I had saved to Evernote. The PDF is a wonderful resource that provides a sample of all the DSP in the new 2016-2017 catalog. I was looking for a paper that would look good with the bird I was going to paint. One of the new Moroccan papers fit the bill!
I began by stamping, with Basic Black Archival ink, the bird and the branch onto watercolor paper using my MISTI. I zapped the images with my heat tool just to make sure the ink was set and then began watercoloring them using the reinkers I had selected previously. When complete, I heat set the images and then die cut them using the Birds & Blooms Thinlits.
Using the Hello You Thinlits, I die cut three "thanks" from Wild Wasabi and adhered them together using liquid adhesive. I chose green for this sentiment to pick up the green from the leaves and to provide a little relief from all the blue. I inked the stacked die cut with Versamark and then heat embossed with Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder three times to make the sentiment good and shiny.
To create the rest of the sentiment, I stamped with the Labeler Alphabet stamp set onto Thick Whisper White using Dapper Denim ink. To use these letters, you really need to stamp one letter at a time to be able to get them close enough to each other. Once complete, I cut the sentiment up into individual words.
Now that I had the sentiment, the bird and the branch, I took some time to plan out my layout for the card. I tried several different configurations, including both vertical and horizontal. I finally decided on a horizontal orientation.
It was necessary to create a 5 x 7" card to hold my layout. I first chose to matte the DSP with Dapper Denim card stock, after inking the edges of the DSP with Soft Suede. I then cut a Soft Suede card base to pick up the color of the branch. The matted DSP was adhered to the card front using Dimensionals.
In my post, Just Sitting Here, I used a technique learned from Lydia over at Understand Blue. The technique involves using a stylus, or in my case I used my McGill Paper Blossom Tool Kit, to push out the back of a die cut to give it a realistic 3D look. I wanted to apply this technique to my bird so it would not look so flat. I also used this technique on the branch to a lesser degree.
After puffing up my bird and branch, I attached double Dimensionals to the bird to maintain the "puffiness" and adhered both die cuts to the card front. This then allowed me to lay out and then adhere both parts of my sentiment. I attached the "thanks" with liquid glue. Before adhering the individual words, I used a sponge dauber to ink the edges of each word with Soft Suede. The words were then adhered to the card front using rolled up Glue Dots to provide a little height.
For the inside of the card, a matte was cut from watercolor paper. Leaves from the Birthday Blossoms stamp set were stamped in two corners using Basic Black Archival ink. Once dry, I used Wild Wasabi and Garden Green to watercolor the leaves. The matte was adhered with Fast Fuse to complete the card.
Here are a couple of shots showing the dimension on the card. It looks even better in real life!
I had a lot of fun creating this card! I really like the color scheme–feel free to save it!
What was really nice was having the ability to create my own sentiment using alphabet stamps. Sometimes the sentiments in a stamp set just don't say what you need them to say so you have to get creative!
I hope you've enjoyed my card today!
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