Serene Sunrise

Hi friend!  Hope you're enjoying your weekend so far.  We had a frost warning last night, and I hope it doesn't affect all the new growth that's popping up everywhere.  I'm still astounded by how early we have the flowering trees blooming around here.  The gorgeous weeping cherry we have is already done blooming for this spring.  How is that possible when it's only April 2nd?  This is at least a month earlier than I was used to in Michigan.  But I'll get used to it, I'm sure!

Today's card started out as an evening twilight card, but I've changed the colors a bit and decided to go with a cool dawn morning instead.   That's more like what we're dealing with here, so it works.

The first thing was die-cutting the Misty Moonlight quarter sheet of cardstock with the Birds & More circular die.  This leaves such a pretty opening with berries and leaves framing the circle.  Since this layer of blue would be almost the whole card front, it needed some texture to give it more interest.  I used my favorite embossing folder - Tasteful Textile 3D Embossing Folder.  I'm so bummed that it's one of the many items that are being discontinued.

Now it's ready to use as a guide for coloring behind the window.  It was carefully placed on the Basic White card base.  I penciled in 4 tiny marks inside the window for a guide when blending in the colors.  I needed to make sure they would cover the opening and then some.  

The first color I used was Pale Papaya ink, laying it on with Blending Brushes on the bottom area of the window. This covered an area about 1 1/2" high.  Next up was Blushing Bride ink.  This was blended into the Pale Papaya ink and brought up about 1 1/2".  The next color was Fresh Freesia ink.  Again, it was blended down into the previous color and blended up about 1 1/2".  Lastly, I added some Misty Moonlight ink to the very top of the area to represent the not-quite-night sky.  I carefully went in to erase the tiny pencil marks.  They really were so tiny I could have left them there, but you know....

I have to throw in a disclaimer here.  In real life, the dawn sky colors are soft, but still much brighter than my pictures would suggest.  I just couldn't get a picture that showed this truly beautiful background.  How frustrating!

The bird is from the Birds & Branches Bundle that's on the retiring list.  The bird is stamped with Night of Navy and Gray Granite for its two-toned look.  These colors made the bird look similar to the cute little Juncos that have been populating our bird feeder. After stamping, it was cut with the coordinating die.  The branch is also from the same bundle and was die-cut from Pear Pizzazz cardstock.

The sentiment is from the Special Moments stamp set that was one of the freebies during Sale-a-Bration.  I hope you were able to pick this set up as it has so many wonderful sentiments included.  This one was stamped with Misty Moonlight ink onto a Basic White scrap.  It was die-cut with the Beautiful Shapes Dies.  This is a fun little die from that set that has embossing that is part of the die.  Nice accent.

Now that all the pieces are ready to roll, it's time to put it all together.  The Misty Moonlight layer was attached to the folded card front (with the dawn sky on it) first.  I used Dimensionals to pop it up and give some shadowing to the leaves and berries around the window.  The Pear Pizzazz branch was attached with multiple Mini Glue Dots.  The bird was attached over the branch using Dimensionals.  Lastly the sentiment was attached flat to the card front using only adhesive.  

At this time, there is no bling on the card.  I wasn't crazy about anything I tried.  So, for now, plain it is.  Let me know if you think it needs something added and what that should be.  I can always change my mind about this, if you can convince me.

As the old catalog is on its way out to make room for the new, I feel the need to get out some of my very favorites and play with them again.  The Birds & Branches Bundle has been used often since I'd gotten it.  While still in Michigan, it was used for classes several different times.  It was always fun to make a card with these fairly realistic birds, and it still was this time around.  Yes, I'm going to miss this bundle very much.  If you're interested, it is still available until the end of April - just a couple more weeks.  Let me know if I can help you order this before they're gone. 

Thanks for coming by again and checking things out.  Hope you enjoyed this little card and give this idea a try.  It's fun to have a die-cut opening in the front of the card with a scene of some kind peeking through.  Just something a little different for you to try.  Just a reminder that catalogs will be sent out sometime this month.  If you haven't received yours by the end of the month, please contact me so I can send another one.

Blessings and peace,

Sharon