Four Birds on a Branch

Good day good people,

Today is Friday for lots of us here in Trinidad. Tomorrow or Saturday (not sure if they confirmed it as yet) we will be celebrating Eid. The government gave the public holiday as Saturday but not sure whether Eid will actually be celebrate tomorrow or Saturday. Many business places give staff the day off when a public holiday falls on a Saturday, which thankfully, I got. Thank God for holidays! 

Sooo…after losing the Paper Smooches SPARKS Anything Goes Challenge last week (I didn't win so I consider that losing) and being so disappointed because I really thought I had a pretty good idea with Oceans Apart and Island House, I figured I’d give it another try since I badly want to win their nice prizes.

The Paper Smooches SPARKS  Inspiration Picture

The first thing that stood out to me in the inspiration picture was the shadows of the branch and birds so I knew immediately I wanted the branch to be raised off the card so it would cast shadows. I’m not sure how closely you have to stick to the picture so I just used it as a guide really. 

I started with an A2 base (Neenah 100 LB smooth desert storm), then blended tumbled glass distress ink lightly to the left and peacock feathers more heavily to the top and right side of a 4” X 5.25” Canson Water Pad paper, with the corners punched. I love how seamlessly and effortlessly the distress inks blend on water paper. I don’t have to worry if the ink will leave solid unblended blotches if I accidently press too hard. The colours all blend together to give the softest and most seamless flow of colours.  

I cut the tiny flowers and branch from the silhouette cameo and assembled them first. Then I stamped the birds, clouds and bird house from the Bitty Bungalows stamp set, cut them out by hand, and stuck them to the branch which I bent at several places in order for it to remain raised like a real branch. 

I got a piece of ribbon which I cut to a thinner strip and added it to suspend the house from the branch. Using the ‘hey there’ stamp from the PaperSmooches Sentiment Sampler, I stamped on a rectangular piece of paper and round punched the top left and bottom right corners.

Hopefully my card wins this challenge, there are a lot of great card designers out there though, so we'll just have to wait and see. So much talent and ideas from all over the world, it’s a joy to see and get inspiration from others.

Have a great weekend and Eid Mubarak to all my Muslim friends!