Country Birdhouse

Hello, hello!  Hope you're doing well today.  I was asked to make a welcome back card for a lady in my Sunday School class.  She had moved away a couple years ago and has just moved back in town.  We're having a lunch on Thursday to welcome her back.  So, they wanted a card to let her know how happy they are that she's back in town.  Since I've never met the lady, I was having trouble coming up with an idea and colors to make a special card for her.  After much rummaging around through my stamps, I thought the Country Birdhouse set with a bird coming home would be fine.  Here's what I made for her...

I hope she likes this and will feel welcomed back with love.  The first thing I chose were colors for the birdhouse.  There are two patterns of paper used on the house.  I chose the light woodgrain for the body of the house from a print in the Nests in Winter DSP that is an Online Exclusive item.  The blue woodgrain for both the roof and the base are from the Country Woods DSP.   These pieces are all die-cut using the Country Birdhouse dies.  A scallop trim was also cut from Basic White cardstock to go under the edge of the roof.  A circle was cut for the opening in the birdhouse.  A piece of Basic Black cardstock about 1 1/2" square was attached behind the opening and the roof and base were attached to the house with adhesive.

A Gray Granite Light Blend was used to add a little shadow under the scalloped trim to give it some depth.  There was a little added along the side edges for some definition.

At this time, I decided on a card base of Misty Moonlight.  It measures 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" and is scored and folded in half. 

The layer on this is a print from the Country Lace DSP pack.  If has a light twill-style design on it.  It looked bland by itself, so I embossed it with the Eyelet 3D Embossing Folder.  That added so much texture and character to the piece.  It's attached to the card base using Tombow Liquid Glue then set aside for now.

The flowers and leaves are made with dies from Country Birdhouse Bundle.  The flowers and leaves are all cut from scraps I had left over from other projects using the Meandering Meadow DSP pack.  It's amazing all the different variations of the colors that are available on just two of the scraps.  I cut only two of the larger flowers in blue tones along with several of the smallest flowers.  The pointy petal flowers are all cut from peachy-pinky sky colors.

Next up, the bird from the set was stamped with Misty Moonlight ink onto a piece of Basic White.  The bird was colored first with Pool Party Light Blends on it's belly and lower wing.  Some Misty Moonlight Light Blends was added to the tail area, upper wing, and top of its head.  The Pool Party Light Blends was used to blend the colors on the wing and head.  Daffodil Delight Dark Blends was used to color the feet and beak.  Then it was die-cut with the matching die.

When playing around with all the pieces, I realized it needed some tall greenery behind the birdhouse.  There are a couple of pieces in the Thoughtful Wishes set that seemed to work.  The leafy stalks were stamped with Granny Apple Green ink and color was blended on the leaves using a Blender Pen.  After coloring it was die-cut.  It was then cut into two pieces and the larger one was attached behind the birdhouse.  It still needed more, so the plain stem from the set was die-cut from Pecan Pie cardstock.  This was cut in half and spread along the back behind the greenery and attached with adhesive.

After attaching the greenery behind the birdhouse, it was attached flat to the card front with adhesive.  The flowers and leaves were attached on the left side with Mini Glue Dots and two of the flowers have Mini Dimensionals behind them.  The extra greenery piece was added to the right side.  Then the flowers and leaves were attached with adhesive, except the large flower which was attached with Mini Dimensionals.

The bird was attached to the front of the card with Mini Dimensionals also.

The sentiment is from the Country Bouquet set.  It's stamped on Basic White with Misty Moonlight and trimmed to fit.  It's attached with adhesive.  The inside of the card has a quarter sheet of computer paper printed with the words Welcome Back with plenty of room for everyone to sign it.  Think that should fit the bill, don't you?

There is a drop of retired Shimmery Crystal Effects in the center of the flowers to give some added texture and interest.  If you use the Crystal Effects, don't forget to give it several hours to thoroughly dry.  And that's it for this card.  I hope everyone likes what I made to celebrate her return.  Now all they need to do is sign it.

Don't forget about the 15% off sale on the Designer Series Papers in the Annual Catalog for the month of August.  It's a good bargain.  And it ties right in with my 50th Anniversary sale.  When you purchase $50 from me this month only, I'll send you a card and a package of embellishments so you can celebrate with me!  Thanks for stopping in to see what's going on.  Hope you're inspired to play along with me and get creative.

Happy stamping and creating,

Sharon