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

Country Birdhouse Friendship Card

 Hello my friends!  It's been too long since I posted, and I truly apologize for the absence.  We spent a week back in Michigan visiting friends and family.  That was so much fun!  Then we had the 11 hours on the road to get back home again.  That seemed to poorly affect each one of us that went of the trip.  I've spent the last two days recovering from the trip, but I think I'm back on track now.  All that said, it's time to share a card I made before the trip.  It uses the Country Birdhouse stamps and dies bundle but doesn't even use the birdhouse from the set.  I'll get around to that soon, I hope.  This turned out to be such a sweet card.  I hope you like the idea and give it a try.

My first thought was to use the gorgeous woodgrain DSP found in the coordinating Country Woods Designer Series Paper.  These woodgrain prints will be perfect for anything country, masculine, or beach themed.  In fact, today's card fits into the country theme and this print is a perfect fit.  

The card base is Misty Moonlight which is one of my favorites.  It's cut to 8 1/2" x 5 1/2", then scored and folded in half.  I wanted to conserve my DSP print, so it's cut only 3" wide and 5 1/2" tall.  To frame it on the card front, I layered a piece of Moody Mauve behind it that measures 3 1/4" x 5 1/2".  These two are layered onto the card base using "green glue" to attach.  This gives me the canvas to create the card.

One of the Everyday Details Dies was used to cut a Basic White circle to anchor the design.  This die set is still available as an Online Exclusive item.  It is a wonderful basic set that you'll use over and over again.

The bird from the Country Birdhouse set was stamped in Misty Moonlight ink on a Basic White piece of cardstock.  Using a Blender Pen, the edges of the stamped bird were softened, pulling the color into the design.  A Daffodil Delight Marker was used to add color to the beak and feet.

Two sets of leaves from the Layering Leaves set were stamped on Basic White using Garden Green ink.  The detail on these was also softened with a Blender Pen.  These were punched out with the Boughs Punch.  There were also two sets of leaves punched from Garden Green cardstock to fill out the design.

Three of the tiny flowers from the Birdhouse set was stamped with Moody Mauve ink onto white also.  The Blender Pen was used to soften the color on these too.  A Daffodil Delight Marker was used to dot in the color for the flower center.

The bird and flowers were die-cut using the coordinating dies to the stamp set.  The hanger and bow were die-cut from Misty Moonlight cardstock.  Now it was time to get all the pieces together to put the design together.

The first thing was making sure the white design circle was in the right place so the bow and hanger would reach the top of the card.  These were both attached with adhesive.

The solid green leaves were placed and attached with adhesive.  Then the stamped leaves were carefully attached over these using adhesive.  

The bird was attached over the leaves using Dimensionals.  One of the flowers was tucked into the leaves.  The other two were added to the design using Mini Dimensionals.

The sentiment used here is from the same Country Birdhouse stamp set.  It's stamped with Misty Moonlight ink on a piece of Basic White cardstock that is about 3/4" in height.  The two ends were angle cut to give it a little different look.  It's added to the design using Dimensionals.

To add a little more interest, three of the 2023-2025 In Color Opaque Sparkle Dots were added to the design.  These are the Moody Mauve color to match the design.  If you look really closely, you can see the sparkle in the dots.

There you have it, a country looking friendship card.  If you need a specific type of card, you can easily switch out the sentiment for something that fits.  I'm definitely happy with the card design as is.

Thank you for being patient with me.  This is going to be an interesting summer with several different trips planned.  Though none of them will require so many hours of travel.  Whew.  I am so definitely NOT a good traveler.  I like being where I want to be, but not the traveling to get there and back.  But with one comes the other.  Guess I can't have it both ways.  So happy you stopped in today to see what's new.  I'll try to be more timely in my posting for now (at least until the next trip 😁).

If you're thinking of placing an order, I'd love to be your demonstrator.  Consider using the Host Code at the top of this blog page.  I'd greatly appreciate it!

Happy stamping and creating,

Sharon