A Little Bird Told Me card created for Chocolate Baroque

Good morning. Here is my contribution for this month’s Colour Challenge. I have used some of those ‘little extra elements’ that often come along with the main images in a stamp set. These are so often overlooked but they are perfect for creating backgrounds, building patterns or for decorating die cuts.

The small decorative stamp from the Spring Bird Daffodil set was stamped onto each of the die cut flower petals. The small flower centres were stamped with one of the blossoms from the bird branch. I added a bit of Flower Soft and stamens for added texture.

I stamped and cut out the cage and bird from A Little Bird Told Me stamp set. The background and elaborate birdy tail were created using the Baroque leaf swirl from the Breath of Spring stamp set.

I used a Baroque label die to layer up in the background as I thought it co-ordinated perfectly with the Baroque leaf swirl stamp. Decorative ovals would also work well for this layout.

Materials:

• Spring Birds Daffodil, Breath of Spring, A Little Bird Told Me stamp sets
• 8 X 8 inch white card blank, white stamping card, coloured card (lavender)
• Inkpads: Distress Ink (Victorian Velvet), Versamark
• WOW Embossing Powders (Honey, Gold Rich)
• Lindy’s Stamp Gang ink spritzers (Glory of the Seas Gold, Rusty Lantern Lime)
• Spectrum Noir alcohol ink pens (burgundy, lime, lavender)
• Spectrum Aqua watercolour pens (deep reds, yellow, lime, ochre)
• Flower Soft (green), PVA pearls (gold), Stickles Glitter Glue (Stardust) and flower stamens (yellow)
• Dies: Kirsty Trio Flower, Victorian Baroque Label, waste strips from Double Cascade Waterfall (Tattered Lace)

How it was made:

1. The card blank was randomly stamped with the Baroque swirl leaf from the Breath of Spring stamp set using Distress Ink. Ink was also blended around the card edges to frame.
2. The thin ‘beaded’ strips were actually waste pieces from a card blank die cut in white (Double Cascade Waterfall). I coloured them with the burgundy alcohol pen and glued to the card to divide up the background. The leaves in the upper and lower sections were then coloured with lavender alcohol pen. The sentiment was stamped with Versamark and embossed with honey powder.
3. The Victorian Baroque Label die set has separate inner and outer dies enabling the decorative elements, background mats and frames to be cut out. Two background mats were cut in lavender card. The other layers were all cut in white card. I spritzed the background mats with lime and gold shimmer inks. The burgundy layers were coloured using an alcohol pen. These were then layered up and glued to the background. I used 3D foam for the central label to give added dimension.
4. The cage and bird were stamped with Versamark and embossed with gold powder. The Baroque leaf swirl was stamped several times and embossed with honey embossing powder. These were cut out and coloured with watercolour pens. The elements were lightly shaped and glued to the card with 3D glue gel for dimension. The large tail swirls of the bird were snipped off and replaced amongst the Baroque swirl elements to build the new elaborate bird tail.
5. The small decorative stamp from the Spring Bird Daffodil set and Distress Ink was used to stamp over the petals of the die cut flowers (2 large and 3 medium flowers). Die cut mini flowers were stamped with one of the small blossoms from the bird branch (Spring Bird Daffodil set). This was achieved placing the stamp flat onto the work surface, partially inking the stamp (i.e. picking one of the blossoms) and pressing the die cut onto the stamp (i.e. Sheena Douglass style) to transfer the ink. A little colour was added using alcohol ink pens (to keep the integrity of the stamping detail – watercolour would cause the Distress Ink to spread). The edges were lightly inked with Distress Ink. The flowers were shaped using a ball tool and foam mat. Flower Soft and stamens were added to the centres to give added texture.
6. Finally finished with PVA pearls and glitter glue for sparkle.