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

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"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!

DYSU Challenge #72-Landscapes!

Copic Marker Scrapbooking 6 copic ciao marker (North/South America), Martha Stewart punch (rest of the world)  Pink Cat Studio Winner’s Choice of 5 Digis The Ribbon Reel £10 Gift Voucher

I used the landscape image from Copic Marker Scrapbooking,

"Emerald City".

The glitter card base is American Crafts, and the Oz characters are Graphic 45 stamps.

I hadn't had a reason to use them yet.

Emerald City gets its' sparkle from Lime Green Stickles.

Everything is colored with Copics.

I tried to come up with a small poppy flower, and my MS punch is all I had. I wanted SOME sort of red/orange flowers for the field. 

(My first attempt at "dotting" them on ended up in the trash.)

Inside of card:

Please forgive the photo.  The card wouldn't sit up straight, and rather than grab a frog, I tried to take it "as is". The sentiment box IS stright and even...lol!

I had a good time putting this one together!

It really took me outside of my comfort zone.

Please check out the rest of the Design Team's projects!

And, as always, lots of prizes up for grabs!

Also, speaking of prizes, I am in real need for some VINTAGE "Alice" stamps!

 In an effort to win some, I've entered this card in the challenge at:

The Altered Alice (anything goes)

Join in!

DYSU Challenge #64 - PLAID!

Winner's Choice of 3 Digital Images

Winner's Choice of 4 Digital Images

A "Toodle Club Membership" and a Toodle Birthday Calendar

My project started out as a card. Quickly, I decided that with this adorable little guy's image from Crafty Sentiments,

I would be missing out on a great opportunity to create a

Summer Memory book for my grandson.

Being a beginner with Copics markers,
I had quite a challenge with the hair on this image.

I was far from happy with the way it looked, so I dampened a terry cloth with the Alcohol Blending solution and dabbed his head a bit.  He's hot, so I figured his hair would be damp, also.  It may not be visible in the photo.

I also dabbed the fan with some dotted cloth to make it appear more textured.

Since I have no pictures to add just yet, I finished up the remaining pages in co-ordinating papers and added some little Summer stamps.

I am including photos of only two of the pages, as the pictures didn't come out very well anyway. But you get the idea.

Once I fill it with photos of Hayden having a great summer,

it will be one of his favorite mini albums!

Check out the rest of the Design Team's projects!
Plaid is so much fun to play with!

DYSU Challenge #62- Go Green!

This week we have three sponsors:

Winner's Choice of 4 Images

Winner's Choice of 10 Digis

Winner's Choice of 5 Digis

Here's my card:

To say it's not my favorite is an under-statement! I colored the image twice, and still felt like the brights were too "in your face".  I know, it's for Easter, but I should have stuck to light pastels. But, I felt those wouldn't show up in a picture very well.

I even washed over the entire image with my Copics W3 to tone it down a bit.

I DO love the Stamping Boutique image!

I split the image in Photoshop so that I could layer the fairy OVER the basket, therefore giving the illusion of her dropping the egg into it!

I think I may have over-thunk this one! LOL!

This image was terrific practice coloring the basket!

Inside reads:

Well, get onto the rest of the Design Team!  I know they have some fantastic projects to show you!  And enter to win with your own card creation!

Go Green!

DYSU Challenge # 58 - Love is in the air!

It's February!

For this week we have two great sponsors:

1 year PDF subscription

Winner's Choice of 3 Digital Stamps

This week I had the opportunity to work with
this adorable little
"BIRDIE BROWN" image!

"Girl with a Rose"

I used the sketch over at Craft's Meow Stamps. 
They have such wonderful card sketches there!

This little gal was so much fun to paper piece, which has become my second favorite image treatment 
(second to coloring with my Copics,of course!)
The chipboard heart was inked red and heat embossed with clear powder three times to get that thick, rich color.

I was intimidated by the flower, so I simply glued on a Prima bloom that I had in my stash, and glittered it. 
It really added some great texture to the card and made it extra-cute!

This one is going to the Cancer Treatment Center, for sure!

Check out the rest of the Design Teams projects
at Do You Stack Up!
They are terrific!

And because of the special holiday nature of my card,
it was entered into the challenges at:
The Craft's Meow (Sketch)
Simon Says Stamp (Love and Prima product)
C.R.A.F.T Challenge (Valentine)
Delightful Challenges (Love)
Sarah Hurley Challenge (Love is all Around)
Divas by Design (Love)
Sentimental Sundays (Love)
Cupcake Craft Challenge (Red)

DYSU Challenge #55!

This week the challenge is to use your

Pattern Papers!!!

Copic Marker Scrapbooking 6 Copic Ciao Markers (North/South America) Martha Stewart punch (rest of the world)

My Little Shoebox Surprise Goodie Bag

My card was paper pieced with pattern paper which is,

by the way, one of my favorite techniques!

Here's a close up of the pretty little image I used from Sparkle Creations, one of our previous sponsors.  She's called "Charlotte with a Rose".

I tied an embroidery bow around her waist and the flower stem.  I also cut a second tag and glued it over the first so that it would be more dimensional.

Enabling supplies:

Cardstock: Bazzill

Sentiment: My Favorite Things, "Clearly Sentimental about Friendship".

Pattern papers:  DCWV, "Citrus"

Flowers: Prima Marketing

Copic Markers

Thanks for joining me again for another peek at the challenge this week at DYSU!

Check out the rest of the DT's projects!

Also, this card has been entered in the challenge at:

Pixie Dust Studio Pixie Challenge (Dots!)