Paper Seedlings: BRUSHO HUMMINGBIRD

First of all, I must apologize for the quality of -- or lack thereof -- the photos in the blog post. It's a fairly sunny day, I used my portable light box, everything was the same as always. But, the photos are still off.

The background is Bermuda Bay. Any of you who are familiar with the Stampin' Up! colors know that this is not an accurate depiction of that color. To me, it looks more like the retired color, Lost Lagoon (which I do miss terribly!).

Mr. Hummingbird's color is quite muted in the photo. My embossing doesn't show up much.

What a whiner, huh?

In a new stamp set, Humming Along, found in the Occasions Catalog on page 36, are several lovely images. My very favorite is the hibiscus -- I have been in love with this flower forever. You will see that image in a card coming up on the blog very soon.

But, the hummingbird is also wonderful. And he's so big. And he's line art. And he begs to be stamped onto patterned paper.

Deciding to do just that, I was digging through my scraps of leftover DSP to find patterns that would work well with my feathered friend. Tucked amongst all the small scraps was a piece of some glossy cardstock that I had used with Brushos awhile ago. The size of this piece was just right for Mr. Hummingbird.

I stamped the image onto several pieces of the DSP, as well as the Brusho background. Immediately, after seeing him stamped on the glossy Brushoed cardstock, I decided to fussy cut him and use him as the star of a card.

Since the bird himself was fairly busy -- Wait! Aren't hummingbirds always busy?? Oh! busy as in a lot going on in the design on the bird. Anyway, I wanted to keep the rest of the card simple so he could be the star focal point.

I know it doesn't show up in these high quality photos, but I embossed the oval on which I adhered the bird with flowers. The Bermuda Bay 4" x 5 1/4" mat has been embossed with the elegant Subtle Embossing Folder (page 223 of the Annual Catalog).

Since I used the same Bermuda Bay, although un-embossed, for the larger oval surrounding the hummingbird, I wanted to distinguish a little more between the oval and the background, so I used Stampin' Dimensionals to pop it up.

I also put a slight Bermuda Bay mat around the sentiment that was stamped in black on Whisper White, once again to echo the nuances of the oval focal point, and I popped "Happy Birthday" up with Dimensionals too.

So, the card has some dimension, but not enough to warrant having to put additional postage on the envelope to mail it.