Thursday, April 29, 2010

Live Your Life Blackbird

Another beautiful day! I'm happy because today I noticed little buds all over my lilac bush. I love lilacs. I mean, I LOVE lilacs. One of the sweetest joys of spring is when their heavenly scent wafts in my open windows. But we're too far North to be there quite yet. Another couple of weeks.

In the meantime, how about a card? This one has a spring thaw feel, with the mix of cool and warm colors, budding branches, and of course, a blackbird.


This paper from Basic Grey was the inspiration. I just loved the colors and pattern. The dark brick color I used for the scalloped edge is actually the backside of the same sheet. I had this bird stamp set from Fiskars, and this little guy perched on his spindley branches seemed like he'd be right at home in that world.

I stamped both him and the sentiment from the same set with Versamark ink, then embossed using black embossing powder from A La Mode. And here's a little tip I learned while doing it that I thought I'd pass along. When embossing words or scrollwork or anything with fine lines, it can be frustrating when the embossing powder collects where it shouldn't, and you lose that definition. What I did was take my mechanical pencil and draw through the powder very lightly, so that no lead marks were left behind, but the spaces opened up again. I did this to separate the dots over the i's and inside the e's and also the little flourishes on either side. Worked like a charm.


Cream colored Bazzill cardstock for my base, and after I thought I was done, I decided to add a bit of hemp twine just to tie in that whole bird's nest idea. I'm happy with how it turned out.

And that's it for me tonight! Enjoy!

2 comments:

  1. This is lovely! That background paper is fab - and I love your bird, too!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This card is beautiful and I couldn't agree with you more about the lilacs...I have 4 trees outside our bedroom window and they are the best smelling flowers!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for taking a few moments to brighten my day!

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