Warm Winter Hugs- For The Birds

Hi Friends!

I hope all of you in the United States had a very blessed Thanksgiving week!  After having a quiet Thanksgiving dinner with my husband as well as a wonderful, relaxing Thanksgiving weekend (with I have to admit, many yummy leftovers- lol!) I had a chance to retreat to my craft room to create a few cards -)

I decided to pull out this cute set For the Birds  from Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps  and design a winter scene that could be sent anytime during the winter months:-)  

Plus this is one of the sets that you could possibly win during our last weekly give-away for our SNSS 10th Birthday Celebration (we are still celebrating- see details here on our FB page).  

This set has several fun bird images, a branch plus several sentiments that are perfect for an encouragement to anyone during the long, cold winter months!

As you know, I love to play along with online challenges and incorporated the Just Us Girls #421 Photo Week Challenge (I was inspired by the colors),  the Word Art Wednesday #310-#311 “Anything Goes” Challenge and the Retro Rubber #076 “Anything Goes” Challenge (this stamp set is over two years old:-)) into the design.

If you have not had a chance to visit the above challenge sites or the SNSS Blog/FB Page yet, I encourage you to do so- wonderful inspiration from all!

To create this card:

1). Create a mask from scrap cardstock for the “snow” bank and lay the mask onto the bottom part of a piece of white cardstock.  Use a sponge dauber to apply Tim Holtz® Broken China and Picked Raspberry Distress Oxide Inks onto the upper portion of the cardstock for the sky.  Once you are satisfied with the shading, lightly spritz with water to create the illusion of snow and heat set with a heat tool to dry the remaining ink.

2). De-static the lower portion with an embossing powder tool, stamp the sentiment from For the Birds with Versafine™ Onyx Black ink, apply clear embossing powder and heat set with the heat tool.

3). Die cut the panel with a stitched rectangle die, mount onto a piece of white cardstock that has been embossed with a snowflake die and adhere the entire panel to the white card base.

4). Ink the bird and branch images from For the Birds with archival ink, stamp onto another piece of white cardstock, apply clear embossing powder and heat set with the heat tool.  Color the images with water-based markers.  FYI- I used the retired matching dies to die cut the images but you could fussy-cut or use an electronic cutter.    

5). Mount the birds along with the branch using dimensional foam to the card front. 

6). Finish off the card by using the Sharpie® Extra Fine White Paint Pen to add snowflakes to the sky and a clear glitter pen to add shimmer to the snow.

Stamp Sets:   For the Birds (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)

Ink/Mediums: Versafine™ Onyx Black, Tim Holtz® Distress Oxide Inks-Broken China, Picked Raspberry; Tim Holtz® Festive Berries Distress Marker; Stampin’ Write Markers- Cherry Cobbler, Pumpkin Pie, Smoky Slate, Wild Wasabi; Sharpie® Extra Fine White Paint Pen, Clear Glitter Pen

Paper/Cardstock: Whisper White

Acessories/Tools: Big Shot™, MFT Die-namics™ A2 Stitched Rectangle STAX Set 2 Dies, Embossing Buddy®, Clear Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Sponge Dauber, AquaPainter™

Thanks again for taking the time to stop by- hugs and I hope you have a blessed week, sweet friends!