Winter Bird
Check out my design this week for the As You See It Challenge blog using An Open Heart stamp set from Stampin’ Up! I love the blended ombre effect in the winter background.
I was leery of the sketch this week. The small center square bugged me. But the funniest thing happens when I am lacking inspiration with a particular layout or colour scheme: I end up really liking the final product!
I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with for this one. I found it so challenging! I decided to use the little bird from the An Open Heart stamp set in place of that square. The snowflake sequins (which were too stark white, so I coloured them with my Light Coastal Cabana Blendability marker), are in place of the flowers on the As you See It layout above. The rest is eye candy for me! Techniques and fun! The stuff I thrive on!
I started with a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock and began using sponge and ink to shade the evening sky background. I was inspired by an image I found on Pinterest for this colour scheme and I love it! With a sponge, from top to bottom, I applied Night of Navy, Island Indigo, and Bermuda Bay ink. Once I was satisfied with the saturation of colour, I added a touch of Momento Black to the very top edge to complete the look. The most bottom edge of the Very Vanilla cardstock was left un-inked and I tore the edge for a bit of texture detail.
Then I stamped the branch image from An Open Heart in Night of Navy ink. The pearls were coloured with the Medium Cherry Cobbler Blendability marker and added for the berries on the branch. I then decided to use my Chalk Marker to accent the buds on the end of the branch. The snowflakes were also coloured (as mentioned above) and adhered to the card with a small dab of Crystal Effects. The Merry Christmas sentiment is from the Petite Pairs stamp set and was stamped with Real Red ink.
The blue bird was stamped with Momento Black ink and coloured with Night of Navy and Coastal Cabana Blendability markers and a touch of Dazzling Details glitter was applied to the bird as though a wee bit of snow was glinting in the moonlight. His beak was coloured using a Tangerine Tango Stampin’ Write Marker. I cut out the bird with my Paper Snips and cut his little legs right off so he could be sitting all comfy-like on the branch. I also used my Project Life journaling pen to darken his beady little eye so it would have a little more life in it (a trick I learned in the watercolouring class I took last spring). That sweet little winter bird was then adhered to the cardstock with Stampin’ Dimensionals.
After wrapping the Cherry Cobbler Baker’s Twine around that layer of cardstock, I used Stampin’ Dimensionals to layer it over the thin mat of Very Vanilla Cardstock. This all was adhered to the Night of Navy card base which looked a little flat next to all that deep blue ink, so I added a bit of Night of Navy ink to the edges of the card base with a sponge.
What will you do with this sketch? I hope you’ll share it with us over at the As You See It Challenge blog!!
Amy.
