Birds and the Bees repost

Hi all,

I'm back today with a project I created about 9 months ago. I was involved in an ATC challenge themed "Birds and Bees" and I was lucky to borrow my good friend Barb's Bird Crazy stamps by my favourite guy Mr. Tim Holtz.  Here is my original project from Pinterest.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/A7fBcAAQQI0CZIQMkeYAAAA/

I had the bird part covered but was perplexed as to how to incorporate the bee part into my ATC. Finally I had this crazy, and aren't these birds all about crazy, idea to stripe my bird like a bee. Voila, birds and bee all rolled into one! Now to come up with a quote for the card. Lucky me that Barb was around and came up with the quote "to bee or not to be". How fitting! Thanks Barb!!

My handsome bird/bee has drawn a bit of attention on Pinterest so I thought I would recreate him, with a couple of tweaks, for my blog and here it is. 

First I embossed a piece of watercolour paper with my new Tim Holtz/Sizzix embossing folder "Sparkle". Then I coloured in the center of each sparkle with my Mermaid Lagoon distress marker. I gave the paper a few spritz of water with my mini mister to help the distress ink spread. Then I put that aside to dry. 

I stamped Mr. Bird twice onto my watercolor paper. One is for the main bird and the second is for his wing, beak and eyes. I cut those out and set aside. 

My first colouring was the bird base with the stripes on it. With a light coloured pencil I drew my stripes onto the bird as a guide. 

Then I coloured in my yellow and black stripes. Next I coloured in the wings, beak and tuft of hair. Even though these will be covered by my second layers I still like to colour them in as that layer will be popped up.  

Final step was to color in the second layers. 

After colouring I assembled my bird. I added pop dots to the second layers of the bird and placed them onto the first layer. I did take a gelly roll white pen and added a bit of highlighting to that second layer to add some depth. 

Using my Dymo machine I spelled out my quote in two different fonts. I find it adds a bit more visual interest if you mix up your fonts a bit. I cut those out into individual words. 

I placed them onto my background sparkle embossed paper once it had dried. I used a Faber Castell Pitt pen to make the words stand out on the white background. The words were a little too light without the added black. 

Lastly I added Mr. Bird and there we are. 

I hope this inspires you to think outside the "bird" and to try something a little different. 

Fall'ing for minis

Fall is definitely within our reach! Cooler nights, leaves changing colour and more time to spend in my craft corner! Woo hoo!! I love summer but fall is just so beautiful and it gives me even more of an excuse to spend time in my craft corner! 

Today's project was inspired by the amazing Hero Arts. 

I recently purchased the Lia Build a Wreath Hero Arts stamp set from one of my favorite stores, Memories and More. It's so adorable! So many tiny little stamps that have so much possibility.

  

I started out by cutting a piece of heavyweight watercolor paper using my Avery-Elle Double pierced rectangular dies. These are my new favorites!

I very lightly traced a circle into my paper to use as a template for my wreath. I inked and stamped one stamp at a time onto my circle. In total I used 7 stamps from the set. I stamped each stamp 5 times in random angles around the circle.  For colour I used my Tim Holtz Distress markers to ink the stamps. I inked and then stamped quite quickly so that the ink didn't dry on the stamp. Here are the colours I used. Plus I also used Fossilized Amber for a little pop of brightness (not shown)

Once the wreath was complete I added the bird to the bottom of the wreath. I stamped it three times using a different color each time. As a final touch I used my Hero Arts mini wood stamp - Hello and added Liquid Pearls in Garnet to emphasize the berries.

I hope you've enjoyed my short and sweet tutorial. Happy Friday.

Michelle

 

Aloha Fall

Fall is slowly creeping into our midst but in my creative world summer has arrived. 

My project today is inspired by the newly released My Favorite Things Polynesian Paradise stamps and die set. While I normally tend to lean towards the distress style of crafting I couldn't help but fall in love with this cute little set.  Little doesn't seem like the right word for all the amazing amount of goodness in these sets. This set is packed with fun little sayings and characters. How about the little turtle!! So fun

Here is what the stamp and die set look like.

How great is it that you get all those pieces and what amazing options.

Here is a overview of the products I used to make my card and the steps.

First I used my Avery-Elle "elle-ments" Double pierced rectangles die set to cut out my watercolor paper for the background. I can't express just how much I love these dies. That little bit of added stitching around the sides is the best! 

Next I added a cloudy background to my watercolor paper using the Memory Box - Mini clouds stencil and Rangers Texture Paste in Transparent matte. I wanted a very light texture in the background for dimension. 

I coloured in the background ever so slightly using Tim Holtz distress markers. I swiped three rows of colour over the paper and then generously misted it with water using my mini mister. The colours I used were Blueprint Sketch, Stormy Sky and Iced Spruce. I put that aside to dry. 

Next up I coloured in my aloha girl and flowers also using the Tim Holtz Distress Markers. Here is a pic of the colours I used on the girl and the cloudy background. I cut her and the flowers out of watercolor paper as well. 

Cloudy sky and flowers.

Hula Girl

I cut out the Aloha saying using my Avery-Elle dies and then stamped it with Mowed Lawn and Seedless Preserves Distress Markers. 

Once the watercolor background had dried I took my Walnut Stain Distress Marker and added the sandy base that is under her feet. I just scribbled some colour on and then took my watercolor brush to spread it out. 

I assembled all the pieces together using a combination of pop dots and Sookwang tape. I popped up the Hula girl, flowers and Aloha. 

The card base and purple background are from Craft Smith paperpack and card packs.

Hope you are enjoying your Labour Day!

Michelle