A little birdie told me....

I was so excited to see the Design Team's theme this week!

BIRDS!

Enter and you could win:

Meljen's Designs - http://www.meljensdesigns.com/
* Winner Choice of 4 Images



Robyn's Fetish - http://robynsfetish.com
* Winner’s Choice of 5 Digital Stamps


Little Claire's Designs

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"Love in the Spring"

I had been working on this project for my submission to

Stampendous Impressions (May challenge - a gift item)
for over a week, and knew it would be great to post it here for my

 "Do You Stack Up?"  
friends, too!

I decided to take pictures as I went along as a type of photo tutorial...and to give a tip or two on what to do and NOT to do!

Now, let's begin...

I started with this simple metal bird cage I have used a a photo backdrop
for a long time.

It seriously needed a facelift!

I wanted to give a vintage, old look to the papers on the bottom of the cage (twigs),

so I spritzed some old music sheets with a variety of colors of glimmer-type mists.

After letting several layers of the color dry thoroughly,

 I ran them through our paper shredder.

(I use it more as a scrap tool than to shred bank statements!)

 I also misted the silk ivy vines just to give them a hint of shimmer.

A tiny bit of moss gives the "female bird" something soft
for her and her eggs to rest on.

The next step has a warning included...lol!

Plastic "eggs" can NOT be heat embossed!

They looked adorable until they started collapsing on themselves. 
Kind of hilarious, and sad at the same time....
Next time, I may choose to go with wooden eggs...
But, I didn't have the energy to run out to my local craft store, so I needed to come up with a simpler solution...using the plastic ones....

This didn't stop me from using my favorite "go-to" bird egg finish...
Stampendous, Shabby Blue Embossing Powder.
I simply covered them with glue and sprinkled the perfectly colored powder all over the eggs and let them dry. A spritz of matte sealer, and they're good to go!
Still the perfect "bird egg blue"!

Oh, wait, the fun's not over!
If you've read along this far, thank you so very much!
For the record, this IS the longest post I've ever put together!

Next, I stamped two copies of the bird from Stampendous "Jumbo Songbird" rubber stamp onto a fine cream muslin and layered it with some batting.  Then, I sewed around the shapes and cut them out, producing two cute, PUFFY little birds as blank canvases.



What is terrific is that fabric heat embosses quite well!
A teensy bit of glue to hold the embossing glitters in place and hitting it with a heat gun is so easy!
Stays right where you want it, and will NEVER rub off!
They HAD to have some tiny rhinestone eyes, too!

I frayed and inked the edges of the birds to give them an even more rustic appearance.
A little Stampendous, Powder Blue Fran'tage Color Fragments
sprinkled into the "nest",
and then I assembled the cage.  (Eggs, Birds, Ivy...)

As the finishing touch, I added the Prima flowers to match the hues of my mother's  sofa and a splash of color to the project!

Ta-da!

Hopefully, this is going on my mother's end table in her livingroom.
She loves all things "country", and especially, birds.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Stampendous, "Jumbo Songbird"
Embossing Powder: Stampendous

This project is also being entered in the challenge at
LESSology (Birds of a Feather)

Again, thanks for all of your patience and reading through this post!

Kathy's got a giveway!

Kathy, at "The Daily Marker" , has a wonderful give-away from Simon Says Stamps!

If you like vintage, and are looking for an easy gift box,

check it out!

Simply leave a comment and post on your own blog, FB, or Twitter!

While you're there, peruse Kathy's past projects and become a follower, if you're not already!

Show and Tell at DoodleDragon!

The team at Doodle Dragon is at it again!

With so many terrific images to pick from,

it's easy to create some fun cards for Summer!

My grandson will be resuming his swim lessons in a few weeks,

and he loves getting my Dustin Pike cards!

I'm not sure what level comes next in his class, but after dolphin,

it MAY very well be"Torpedo"! LOL!

As for me, I don't swim. Never did learn, so it's all very impressive....

I colored and cut TWO of the gator images so that I could layer one curved and have it hovering over the bottom one.  Also, the areas of his jaw and "hands" are underwater, and therefore cut off of the top image.  Much harder to see the added dimension in the photos than IRL!

I also had an excuse to use some of my little metal flipflop charms!

Also, spritzed him with "Goose Bumps" to give him the look of a toy rubber raft.

(Thanks, Jenn!)

Perhaps this photo helps....

I love his little patch and the air valve.

Have a great week,

and thanks for looking! 

Your comments always make my day!

~Jan~