Put a bird on it.

A good friend recently introduced us to Portlandia, the ultra-hip TV show, and further introduced me to their catch-phrase: "Put a Bird on It!" See, everything's prettier with a bird on it. And I couldn't agree more!

I wanted to make my friend a thank-you card, and this design just popped into my head. I guess it's my hip-est card to date... I even included baker's twine, which is hipness at its best in my book.

I've accumulated several die-cut alphabets, so I was happy to have a reason to use some of them. The corrugated Kraft and small framed letters are from Jillibean Soup, and the glittered orange foam stickers are from Future Publishing (probably a freebie from one of Mom's magazines).

I covered the framed letters with Crackle Paint and distressed the edges with my Prima tool. The corners are embellished with my favorite Marvy corner punch. 

The wood bird is from Prima's Birds & Owls collection; I adhered one to adhesive foam and used it as a stamp to heat-emboss the row in translucent yellow. Then I heat-embossed the wood piece with the same powder and perched it on the "u".

I had too much fun making this, and I think my friend will get a real kick out of it. 

Inspiration/Challenges:
Cupcake Inspirations: Photo Inspiration/Birds
Divas by Design: Anything Goes
Inspire Me Fridays: Anything Goes
Party Time Tuesdays #109: Anything Goes


Update: This was a featured project for Inspire Me Fridays #97.

Here's a clip from Portlandia:

Thank you for visiting,

Simply Autumn

The leaves are changing & falling in a major way, but I rarely have luck portraying the beauty of this season in a card. So I decided to try my hand at the "Autumn" challenge at Less is More (but I entered 6 challenges, not 5 (I thought it was 5 plus theirs) so it's ineligible, which always happens to me over there).

I used a "letterpress" technique to stamp/deboss the fence; the shape is actually a wooden shape (which I received from Linda as part of a City Crafter swap). Basically, I inked the wooden shape with brown chalk ink, carefully taped it, ink-side-down, onto my cardstock (with removable tape), and ran it through my Bigshot using the sandwich of: multipurpose platform, wooden shape, cardstock, extra piece of cardstock, one embossing pad, and a clear plate on top. Because the wood is so thick, I had trouble with getting a good embossing without the paper cracking, but it "stamped" great!

The leaves are embossed/cut with Spellbinders dies. I used craft foil for the copper leaves. The sentiment is stamped with brown StazOn, using a stamp from an Adam Prescott/Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine set.

The stamped portion is adhered to the card base with foam tape, so that it pop up a little bit (like I see the pros doing). I'm very happy with the results; just because it's "clean & simple" doesn't mean it was easy!

Inspiration/Challenges:
Cardabilities Sketch #61: Sketch
Critter Sketch: Embossing  
Divas by Design Challenge 58: Use some Orange
House of Gilli: Embossing, wet or dry
Simon Says Stamp: Autumn Leaves


Update: I ended up sending this, along with a completed repair order, to the State Police. Hey, working in Traffic can't be fun; and everyone deserves a card!

Thank you for visiting,

Quilted explorer

For my birthday (34, my goodness ... I'm just getting started!), Mom bought me some Lili of the Valley stamps and die cuts, and I'm been itching to use some of the adorable little boy stamps! The Little Pirate and Sleeping Reader make a nice set.

In order to use two stamps on one card, I decided to make what I'll call a Notch Swing Card. The concept is simple: secure a piece of paper slightly larger than the cut-out space by cutting small slits, or notches, in both. I put this card together in SCAL, and if you'd like to try it you can download my SVG files via the link at the bottom of this post (please leave a comment if you do).

I couldn't resist making something for the Columbus Day challenge at CCEE Stampers ("Make a card with a ship, ocean, or anything that relates to this day."). I grew up near Puerto de Santa María, where Columbus set sail for his second voyage to the New World. For seven years, I spent Columbus Day with the Girl Scouts, trekking to the church where he prayed before his voyage. Columbus Day isn't very popular in the States these days, since people doubt his "discovery" legacy, but I've always enjoyed the lesson of Columbus: Follow your dreams; They might not lead where you imagined, but it will be a great adventure.

The background was inspired by the Photo Inspiration/Use Your Scraps challenge at DYSU. Not only are the colors in the photo example beautiful, I liked the idea of using up my scraps to create a quilted feeling.

I sewed on the buttons, and I'm entering this into the Button Up! challenge at Divas by Design. I stamped & colored the images on Hammermill cardstock, fussy-cut them, and glued them onto the blue linen paper.

Here's card closed flat:

Here it is winging open one way (see photo at the top of this post for the view with it swing the other way):

I put the message section on the back so that the inside served as a sort of background for the front. Here's the inside:

And here it is open from the back:

Inspiration:
CCEE Stampers / CCEE1141: Columbus Day

DYSU #41: Use Your Scraps + Photo Inspiration
Divas by Design #12: Buttons

Stamps: Lili of the Valley

Paper: stash (scraps), Hammermill, China Blue Eyes Linen Finish Card Stock from Mark's Finest Papers

Tools: Fiskars papercutter & deckle scissors, MS detailing scissors, Marvy heat tool, sewing machine

Other: ZipDry glue, Simplicity thread, Recollections embossing powder
Copics: E13, YR00, E35, E31, E47, E37, YR09, B18, B39, B32, B23, B00, BG15, BG10, RV11, YG67, YG63, G99, G07, YG03, YG41, Y000, YR31, YR12 (I also used YR12/Loquat for all the edging)

Download card cut files (svg)

Love you with Cherry Cake on the side

We picked up red and yellow cherries at the Waverly Farmers Market, and I used some to make one of my favorite cakes from Smitten Kitchen. You can use whatever fruit you want, as long as you drain any excess liquid. I'm pretty sure I spent more time pitting the cherries than making this card! For me, pitting cherries is a huge sign of devotion. So I figured I'd make a card for my husband (and for a few challenges, why not‽) to go along with the cake:

I used half wheat flour and half brown sugar, so it's not a particularly sweet cake, but we can always add something sweet, like ice cream! The heart-punch cherries are coated with Glossy Accents with little rope stems. I copper-embossed the heart brad.

Inspiration:
Mojo Monday #197: Square Sketch
Craft Your Passion #64: Seeing Red
Stampin' Dymonz Scrap Shack Off the Page Group: Polymer Clay
Divas by Design #5: Punches

Tutorials:
Polymer Clay Mosaic Tiles at Art Bliss

Stamps: Cling Cupcake XL by Stampendous, sentiment by Hampden Art
Paper: Recollections (metallic, plain, kraft), glittered Core'dinations
Tools: HP printer & ink, Marvy heat tool, Fiskars papercutter, Recollections heart & border punches
Other: ZipDry glue, ZING embossing powder (thank you Dymonz!), Versamark ink, Sakura GellyRoll pens, brad from stash, Glossy Accents, Sculpey polymer clay, stash craft rope
Copics: YG67, R37, R59