SENDING A SMILE

I apologize for the quality of this photo. The main portion of the card is a shiny metallic cardstock. No matter what I tried, I could not improve on it.

Trust me when I tell you that this is a simply exquisite card -- simple being the key word. In this card, we are letting the Designer Series Paper do pretty much all of the work.

Follow along for a tutorial on making a card similar to this one.

SUPPLIES

White cardstock

Specialty Designer Series Paper

Merry Messages stamp set

VersaMark ink

Big Shot

Something Fancy Dies

Polished Dots

Stampin' Dimensionals

Embossing Buddy

Copper Embossing Powder

Heat Tool

DIRECTIONS

Fold a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece of white cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

Cut a piece of shiny metallic Specialty Designer Series Paper (or any other similar paper) with a face-to-face design to 3 3/4" x 5". Mount it to the white card base.

Since this DSP is so gorgeous on its own, we are not going to add too much to the card. Don't you agree?

Rub an Embossing Buddy over a scrap of white cardstock. In VersaMark ink, stamp your sentiment. Emboss it with copper embossing power. Use a label die to cut it out. The die I used is from the Something Fancy set..

Use Stampin' Dimensionals to add the cut out sentiment to the lower right corner.

Add a trio of shiny gems to finish off the look.

Shiny

Smiles.

THE DAILY BIRD MARCH 2024

Going through the bird drawings that I did in March shows me that March must have been a pretty good month for birdies. I liked a lot of them! That is so unusual. 

These are my favorites from the month. Above each bird drawing, I will give the name of the bird and where in the world you could find these feathered friends. I hope you enjoy.

 african jacana

sub-saharan africa

european bullfinch

europe and temperate asia

american singer canary

macaron asian islands

cinereous vulture

southern and eastern europe, middle east, central asia into mongolia and china

russet-throated puffbird

northeastern colombia

red-cheeked cordon-bleu finch

sub-saharan africa

hooded pitta

southeast asia

nicobar pigeon

india

eastern meadowlark

southeastern canada, west to the great plains and great lakes regions, 

appalachian mountain corridor

yellow-bellied sapsucker

canada, northeastern u.s.

african fish eagle

southern africa

egyptian goose

africa: nile valley

chestnut seedeater

argentina, brazil, paraguay, uruguay

common buzzard

palearctic

marabou stork

africa

hawaiian honey creeper

the hawaiian islands

red-faced liocichla

bangladesh, bhutan, myanmar, northeast india, nepal, western yunnan

european sparrowhawk

europe, coastal northwestern africa, asia

european eagle owl

iberian peninsula, europe and asia

And there you have it. March in the bag. Thank you so much for continuing on this bird journey of mine. See you in the next installment. April 2024!

birdie

smiles.

STRIPPY THANKS

If you're like me, you have lots of scraps and leftovers lying around from finished projects. Cardstock is so expensive, I really hate getting rid of even the smallest piece. Thus, when I come upon an idea that enables a crafter to make a cute card using up scraps, I'm all in!

You too? Keep reading for a tutorial on how to create a card like this:

SUPPLIES:

White cardstock

Assorted colors of cardstock scraps

Black cardstock

Big Shot

Amazing Thanks dies

Stampin' Dimensionals

Textured embossing folder

DIRECTIONS:

Fold a 4 1/4" x 11" piece of white cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

Cut a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of white cardstock. Use an embossing folder to add texture to this piece. Add it to the white card base.

Cut a piece of black cardstock to 1 1/2" x 5 1/4". This will be the base to which you will add your colored strips.

From assorted scraps of colored cardstock, cut eight strips that measure 1/2" x 3". 

Add the colored strips to the black, starting with the two on the ends and adding them at jaunty angles. It might help if you lay it out first to get the color order and tilts that please you. Then, proceed with the glue.

Using a two-part die that says "Thanks", cut the larger portion from white cardstock and the narrow part from black. Carefully adhere the two word parts together.

Adhere the word over the strippy section.

Wth Dimensionals, add the completed strip to the card.

Strippy

Smiles.

FOLIAGE BIRTHDAY

I am going to make a concerted effort to add more posts to my blog. Initially, I had planned to not renew my website when it came up for renewal this month. But, I decided to keep on keeping on rather than giving up on all my hard work over the many years.

Besides my periodic posts of my bird drawings, I will resume adding tutorials for some of the cards I continue to make. I offer kits to make four cards each month. These blog posts will be the creations for those kits.

One more thing: since I am no longer a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator (ignore that claim in my header. I don't know how to fix it.), I will continue to use my Stampin' Up! products. I will then refer to those items by the Stampin' Up! name. I will also be using non-Stampin' Up! products.

SUPPLIES:

White cardstock

Forest Foliage cardstock

Designer Series Paper

Forest Foliage ink

Big Shot

Oval dies

Unbounded Love dies

Linen thread

Stampin' Dimensionals

INSTRUCTIONS:

Fold a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece of white cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

Choose a piece of Designer Series Paper that you think would make a good background. Once your DSP is chosen, pick a piece of cardstock that works well with the colors in the DSP. Cut this coordinating cardstock to 3 1/2" x 4 3/4". You will be doing the next steps on this base.

From the DSP you've chosen, cut it to 3" x 4 1/2". Then cut this into three 1" strips. Evenly add these strips to the coordinating cardstock.

From white cardstock, die cut an oval that measures 1 3/4" x 2 3/4". In coordinating ink, stamp a sentiment that fits nicely in the center of the oval.

From some of the coordinating cardstock, die cut a decorative oval border. Carefully adhere this border to your white oval.

Take a length of linen thread, and after putting adhesive on the back of the oval, make loops, catching the thread on the adhesive as you pass over it. I added tape over the adhesive oncee my loops were in place.

Use Stampin' Dimensionals to add the sentiment piece toward the top of the card.

Leafy

Smiles.

THE DAILY BIRD FEBRUARY 2024

Unbelievably behind in posting my bird drawings. As you see in the title of this post, the birds I will be featuring are a handful of my favorites from FEBRUARY! 

This series, entitled The Daily Bird, began when I finished my #365birds. Yes, an entire year of daily bird drawings. Now, by calling my current challenge The Daily Bird, I have no ending in sight.

As I always do in these posts, I will indicate above each drawing the name of the bird, as well as  where in the world this particular bird can be found.

waffled curassow

tropical amazonian forest

ring-necked duck

north america

african grey parrot

central africa

clark's grebe

north america

white-naped crane

northern mongolia, southern siberia, korea, japan, central china

fulvous whistling duck

lowland south america, southern u.s., west indies

plate-billed mountain toucan

west slope of ecuador, extreme southern colombia

pale-billed flowerpecker

india

comb-crested jacana

australia

ruddy kingfisher

southeast asia

merlin

north america

green wood hoopoe

africa

And, that's it for the birds of February 2024. Stay tuned for more.

I would be delighted to have prints made of any of my birds for you! Just hit me up for which of them you would like to own. Keep in mind that the photos I have here are quick snapshots of the birds, not the quality you would get in a print.

Birdie

Smiles.