sing with joy

Hey, everyone. I decided to make a card for the SCS ways to use it challenge today, but I can't believe how many hours it took to get it done. The challenge was to use chipboard, which I love using because of the dimension and stability it gives. Most of the time, I just use cereal boxes and glue some together for more thickness, which is what I did today.

I wanted to use one of my new Sizzix dies by Tim Holtz, so I pulled out Caged Bird. I started by cutting two cages and three birds and then gluing them together. I inked the cage up with Ranger vintage photo ink, but then decided I wanted it to look shiny, so I went over it with versamark and clear embossed it.

For the bird, I first painted it with white acrylic paint and then stamped it in brilliant blue with a stamp from SU's vintage vogue set. I sponged the edges with brilliant blue. In order to get in the small area between the legs, I used a makeup sponge applicator. Because the paint lightens the ink color, it actually looks more like ballet blue.

Along two sides of the white background, I stamped flourette (Stampington & Co.) enough to make it look like a vine. Then I overstamped the little leaf from vintage vogue in always artichoke. I added some gable green with marker to brighten it up a bit.

The flowers are all stamped in ballet blue on separate paper, cut out and sponged with brilliant blue. They are just randomly placed on the vine, with some in front of the cage, so that the cage looks like it's hanging in the vine. A number of leaves were also cut out and added for more dimension.

I used a brilliant blue marker to add some detail to the flowers, a yoyo yellow marker for the centers, and an always artichoke marker for leaf veins.

When all these parts were glued down on the card, I had a very small space at the bottom for a sentiment, so what went there had to be only one line. I looked until I found something suitable (fundamental phrases) that I liked, stamped it on a scrap of white, trimmed it and clipped the ends, then sponged the edges and glued the ends down, with the center popped up. I really like how the card turned out, even though I spent way too many hours making it.

Thanks so much for stopping by for a visit today. Be blessed.