Hummingbird Harmony with Crafty Meraki

Hi There!  I have a project that I haven’t shown yet which I created for the latest Crafty Meraki Release.   It uses two new stamp sets called Hummingbird Harmony and its coordinating die, and Flower Fest Stamps with its coordinating dies.  I took a selection of beautiful tropical flowers from the set, and a little bitty hummingbird and coloured them up with Copics using lots of saturated colour.  

After adding some shimmery pen to the hummingbird, I arranged the flowers on an ink blended cardbase and frame, popping up some elements for lots of dimension. 

All that was left was some iridescent sequins to add to that sense of shimmer.  It’s a burst of tropical colour for the last days of Summer.  

Thanks for joining me!

 

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Hummingbird Harmony with Crafty Meraki

Bye Bye Birdy Postage with TCP

Hello!  Today I’m bringing you some of the March Release goodies from The Cat’s Pajamas for a second look.  I didn’t get a chance to play with all of the sweet things from the Release, so today I am creating with the Bye Bye Birdy digital set.  These sweet little chirpers will steal your heart!   This is a creative set that offers both lined bird and birdhouse images as well as images already coloured in to make really quick cards.  I pulled out my Copics and brought some sunshiney colour to them.  

After adding some white gel pen accents to the images I cut out the images with a retired TCP postage themed dies with deckled edges, and then added some postmark stamping with another retired TCP postage themed polymer stamp.  Postage style cards are certainly on-trend right now!  

I placed all the images on some brand new digi-paper from TCP called Spring is Here!  I printed it on some textured white cardstock and it really grabbed the printer ink nicely!  Then a layer of vellum anchors the postage with a few die cut hearts as accents.  

Cuties!  I’ve been hearing the Robins lately in my neighbourhood and it gives me great delight!  Enjoy your day, thank you for stopping by!  

 

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Bye Bye Birdy Postage with TCP

Postal Birdies with Waffle Flower

Hello again friends!  I’m popping in tonight with an adorable design that mixes a bunch of company products in it.  I finally broke down and purchased a few of Waffle Flower’s Postage Collage products.  This one uses both the Postage Collage Mini Slimline dies, and the Postage Collage Mini Slimline Blocks Stencil.   I had such a great time combining things to create a little design I love!  

 

After adding in the main background colours through the stencil I also added in some images from the Everyday Stencil  that would coordinate with the leaves and birds theme I was going for.  Next I used some Spellbinders Dies for my little birds, Sweet Birdie Etched Dies and  Little Chickadee in new Concord & 9th’s colours 2024 Color Collection.  

I coordinated a few other Concord & 9th dies for the the leaves and some retired TCP stamps for the postage cancellation and cent marks.  Isn’t it darling?  

Such a cute little card, and I’m just loving how these postage collages look!  Can’t wait to play some more!   Appreciate your visit!  

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Postal Birdies with Waffle Flower

Stitching Saturday - Baby Birdie

 

Hi Everyone! I’ve got a new stitching card today using a number of products from Spellbinders, with a baby theme that is really darling.  I started with Spellbinder's  Stitching Petal Diamond Background and a pretty color palette of floss and then added this adorable Little Chickadee die in coordinating colours to the floss.  

I think this sweet little bird really makes the card shine.  It’s perfect as a baby welcome accent!  The foiled sentiment comes from the Mini Everyday Sentiments Glimmer and it’s layered over a section of vellum to give softness. 

Lots of fun colour to stitch with!  

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Stitching Saturday - Baby Birdie

Stitching Saturday: Merry Cardinal

 

Hello, and happy Saturday!  I’m dropping in today with another sweet stitching project, perfect for Christmas.  This design incorporates a few products from Spellbinders,  the Circular Stitched Background, and this adorable little die, Sweet Birdie Etched Die.  

Once I had all the stitching done with a rich evergreen and metallic white, I added holeless sequins for sparkle, and a die cut “merry” sentiment from Concord & 9th’s set Christmas Cloche.  It has the perfect thin script!  I stacked 3 die cuts together and ink blended some soft green ink to the sentiment to help it stand out then gave it sparkle with fine and chunky glitter.  

I used the adorable bird to fashion a red cardinal from the dies, and he’s perched perfectly on the sentiment.  It was a fun project!  Thanks for joining me today!  

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Stitching Saturday: Merry Cardinal

Alex Syberia Designs - Dreamy Florals

Sometimes you’re just in the mood to colour something really beautiful, and for me I always lean toward florals.  So, I picked up a few images from Alex Syberia Designs in her digi files, this one called Just Wonderful Floral Slimline.  Those petals and that sweet little bird stole my heart!  They have a November Colour challenge on the blog with a bluey-purple to green palette, so though this design isn’t Christmasy (maybe in the tropics!), the colours work perfectly for the card.  

I pulled out my Copics, worked with light blues to purples and then added some fun greens, and then that contrasting pop of orangey-yellow for that adorable bird.  After colouring with Copics, I pulled out my Prismacolor Pencils and added in some details to pull some of the colours together better and deepen the contrast between the petals so they pop from each other.  This was a really lovely one to spend time on.  

The card base is ink blended to coordinate with the colours on the flowers and tie it all together.  

The foiled sentiment is from Spellbinders, Yana’s Sentiments Glimmer.  I think I want to get more in this style because I use them so often.  They are just the right size to add to a card, and the scripty style is so pretty.  

Thanks for joining me today for this colouring extravaganza!  
 

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Alex Syberia Designs - Dreamy Florals

Bird Wreath Blessings with The Greetery

 

As I’m writing this, I’m looking out at frost covered branches from days of fog we’ve had.  It’s spectacular and sparkly, and one of the reasons I love Winter.  But, if I had to choose, I think Spring is my favourite!  This design using The Greetery goodies and Stamp Simply feels just like spring to me!  

There’s some lovely components that went into this design, that I originally created for some missionaries that were returning home after many decades of service, but I chose a different card, and just got around to finishing this one up.  To create the beautiful wreath I used The Greetery’s beautiful Floral Arches Stamp and Stencil, and the coordinating die.  Using Disress Oxide inks for the colour for the flowers and leaves.  The sweet goldfinch was created with The Greetery’s Robin and Wren Stamp set and Coordinating Die.  And he looks perfect perched in the flowers!

The sentiment is from a Stamp Simply set called Pastor and Ministry Appreciation Scripture. And I’ve added some background using a basketweave stencil for extra texture and pop of colour.  

It makes a lovely encouragement for someone who is making a difference!  

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Bird Wreath Blessings with The Greetery

From Our Nest to Yours

 

One of the most common birds found at our bird feeders are Chickadees and I enjoy watching them take shelter from the cold tucked in each day.  This little cutie from Power Poppy called My Little Chickadee is such a fun and easy one to colour up, that its perfect for the latest Blossom Challenge: Clean Slate theme for clean and simple cards. He’s ruffled up and on this winterberry branch ready to sing a song!  

I created a mini-slimline design with blocks of colour in patterned paper that coordinated with the colours I used with Copics.  

Some soft pointillism dotted blue-grey background is a soft touch, and the accents are simple die cut branches from The Greetery which I added mica flakes to, to simulate sparkly icy snow.  

You get a sense of the sparkle on this view, it’s really shimmery in real life!

I hope you can join us for The Blossom Challenge:  Clean Slate HERE!  

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From Our Nest to Yours

Bluebird Buddy

 

I’ve really enjoyed time in my studio this month and have pulled out some of the projects I started last year, but didn’t finish.  A few of them include some of the little birds I created with The Greetery’s stamp set and coordinating dies called Robin and Wren. When I started stamping and adding colour, I couldn’t stop at just one type of bird, but tried to see how many different types I could create.  So, today it’s a sweet little Bluebird who are supposed to be symbolic of joy!     

This little buddy is paired with The Greetery’s Blooming Branch stamps set and coordinating dies, and is placed in a windowed and embossed opening cut with an arch die.  The background is a pop of purply-blue watercolor to set off the bird.  The coral colors of the blossoms pair well with his orange breast and are a nice contrast to the blues.  

The embossing gives you that feeling of a lattice in the garden, which I think is a great design element too!  

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Bluebird Buddy

Robin Sightings

 

I don’t know about you, but as soon as the calendar turns over into January, I wish it was Spring.  I love that we have four seasons here in Alberta, but I sure wish Spring came earlier!  So, I was in the mood for one of the first signs of Spring in our area, when the Robins return!  If I can’t have it in real life, I can create it in paper!   

For today’s design I played with lovely items from The Greetery.  The Robin and Wren stamp set, the Curio Spring Findings Dies, and for the sentiment Sketched Wildflower Bouquet.  They make a great combination of sweet nature things to complement the earthy arrival of Spring.  

I used my distress inks to create a realistic coloured robin and cut this cute little dude out with the Robin and Wren dies.  To create the circles in the mini-slimline card size I used PinkFresh’s Mini Slimline Essentials dies.  

I just love the sweet elements in the Curio Spring Findings dies!  They are all sponged with colour, splattered and accented with watercolour pens, and carefully placed on the card.  Some vellum accents the middle circle and provides a plce for the sentiment to sit, cut using The Greetery’s Sketch Wildflower Bouquet Dies, and a wee bit of wood veneer mini stars give it dimension.  A little more ink splatter goes a long way to create some interest on the card base as well.  

So precious!  And a sweet reminder that Spring is coming!  

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Robin Sightings

A Robin's Song

 

It always feels like Spring when I can see the Robins have returned to our northern climes.  I love their pretty songs!  So, it was fun to play with The Greetery’s set called Robin and Wren and the coordination  Robin and Wren Dies to mimic what I love seeing in the Spring.  I think these layered stamps are amoung the most realistic bird stamps I’ve ever seen.  It’s really fun to create different types of birds by using differing ink colours.  I spent a few hours stamping some different varieties that will make it into future cards.  

Before I created my scene I sponged some Distress Ink, Tumbled Glass and Saltwater Taffy onto white cardstock and added some water splashes and then pulled it together with The Greetery’s  Blossoming Branch stamp set and Blossoming Branch Die for this sweet pair to sit on.  And in the spring it’s all about those soft peachy-pink blossoms.  

Aren’t they the cutest pair?!  I’ve framed the design with an MFT scalloped edge rectangle die, added some flower sequins that match the blossoms perfectly  and then the pretty birthday sentiment from The Greetery’s Spring Mix Stamp.  

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A Robin's Song

Goldfinch for a Friend

 

I’ve been having some more fun with Simon Says Stamps Stamp and Die set called Beautiful Birds, creating a sweet little goldfinch, another little bird I love.  I added in the layers of yellow, black and white feathers with Copics, and stamped his orange beak separately, adding it on top.  The scene is created on a mini-slimline size.  He’s perched there so sweetly!

I gave him a fun background sponging in Tumbled Glass and Mowed Lawn to give the feeling of bokeh sky and leaves in the distance, and then added a few enamel dots to the branches to give the feeling of leaves too.  Such a cute little bird!  

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Goldfinch for a Friend

Drawing Your Background and Modifying Stamps

 

Hello and welcome!  Today I’m bringing you a sweet little design that I used some artistic liscence on :)  I’m using Simon Say’s Stamps precious stamp set Spring Birds.  I love birds (except, I will admit not Magpies whom I have a particular love/hate relationship with....mostly hate because of their noise).   One of the birds I especially enjoy in Spring through Fall is the Red-Winged Blackbird that migrates here each year.  They have such striking colour and a distinct little call that is so pretty.  They are often found in more marshy areas where they build nests in the cat-tails, and the males like to perch on the thick stems in watch.   

I decided to alter one of the stamps from the set to resemble a Red-Wing Blackbird with black feathers and red/yellow “epaulettes” on their shoulders, a slightly longer beak and tail feathers, modified with my Multi-Liner pen.  

Then I wanted to create some cat-tails for him to perch on, but didn’t have any stamps like that, so I pulled out my pencil and drew in the cat-tails and grasses.  Cat-tails are pretty straitforward to draw if you think of them as hotdog shaped :)  It was all outlined in multi-liner pen and after I sponged in some sky and water with Distress Oxide ink, I perched the little bird over top.

  

The lovely patterned paper is from Craft Consortium, I die cut an arced window for the little scene with a Stitched Arch die from MFT, it’s my most recent favourite!  

The little sentiment is perfect sized and font and the addition of a wood veneer star completes the simple CAS lines.   Always fun to see something you imagine in your head come to life!  

Thanks for joining me today!

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Drawing Your Background and Modifying Stamps

Cozy Nest

I love watching for and listening to the songs of all the little local birds soaking up the spring weather these days, it makes my heart happy every time I hear them!  So, I have birds on my mind and had dto use this adorable die set from The Greetery called  Curio:  Spring Findings Die.  

I placed the entire die set onto Arches watercolour paper and cut all the little pieces in one large section, then leaving the cut outs in the paper, I watercoloured each little piece with Zig Clean Cut Real Brush markers.  The vibrancy of these markers and the brush edge really works well with the fine details of the die cuts.  

I layered all the pieces in a design I thought would be sweet, and placed them in different levels onto a watercoloured background.  The sentiment comes from The Greetery’s Print Shop:  Spring Mix Stamp, and I’ve added a few splatters of watercolour to speck the background like I’ve speckled the robin’s eggs.   

Tiny fussy details, but oh so fun to bring everything together in the end to create a cozy scene!  

 

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Cozy Nest

Christmas Remix: Season of Serenity

We’re back with Power Poppy’s Christmas Remix and today we’re showcasing a gorgeous new image that celebrates that cold frosty glow!  It’s called Season of Serenity.  

Tranquility and peace surrounded by nature, isn't that one of life's greatest pleasures? I’ve tried to capture the essence of serenity in this oval scene of snowy evergreens and mountain caps, accented by a sweet bird in holly in the foreground. (Is it a cardinal? A blue jay? Color it however you'd like to match your color scheme.) Sentiments are framed perfectly by the snowy oval. OR - use the secondary focal image of the bird in holly branches with any of the sentiments. What a versatile digital set! You could even print these out to use as gift tags, just add your own "TO" and "FROM". Images included in black and light grey for no-line coloring.

Such a beauty isn’t it? It really captures that crisp cold quiet of winter.  I’ve given the scene colouring with Copics, and that beautifully little bird became a bluejay.  We don’t get cardinals up here like Marcy does in St. Louis, but we regularly see blue jays.  After colouring, I trimmed the scene out carefully, then placed it on a frame of bright blue, backed by an embossed layer of snowflakes making sure to keep that crisp white.  

This scene really reminds me of Lake Louise here in Alberta.  It is the most beautiful turquoise lake that is completely surrounded by majestic mountains and forest.  In the winter the lake freezes over and you can skate on the ice and they have on occasion, had an ice castle built.  It is stunning.  This picture is before the lake totally freezes over.  Just look it up and you’ll be blown away, it just looks too beautiful to be real...and in real life the photos don’t do it justice.  

I gave the “lake” some reflection of the mountains and coloured up the sky to have a deepening blue to purple, almost like an Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights dancing in the night sky, which we often see in the winter here.  

I’m just loving that jay!  I really appreciate that Marcy included the bird and greenery as a separate image for this set too.  

I added glittery pen to the snow and the moon, but it’s always so hard to photograph so you can see it, but you might see some of it on the left side.  A touch of glittery ribbon and die cut snowflakes accent the card.  

Pop on over to see what the rest of the Bloom Brigade and Instant Gardeners have to show off today with Season of Serenity.  

Stacy Morgan 

Nancy Sheads -

Leslie Miller 

Christine (you are here) 

Kathy Jones

Julie Koerber

Allison Cope

Catherine Anderson

and Marcy at the Power Poppy Blog!

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Christmas Remix: Season of Serenity

Heaven and Nature Sing

Happy Friday everyone!  I’m popping in with a new card showcasing one of Marcy’s beautiful Christmas sets, Power Poppy’s Heaven and Nature Sing.  I stamped several of the images in the set to fill in the entire card-front with these lovely birds, holly and berries, and hellebore.  I love the delicate and unique colours of hellebore, or lenten rose, and I know they don’t come on the same cluster in these different colours, but it was fun to play with the idea for this card.  Initally I was thinking it might be too diverse a colour combination, but once you add colours from one flower into the next and work with a coordinating background it helps the whole design look cohesive.  

All the colouring is done with Copics, a good bit of it during one of my husband’s treatments.  They dose him up with Benedryl to prevent reactions and that is one drug that puts him right out!  So, while he sleeps I colour.  

Some classy holeless sequins are the only embellishment, and depending on which way you turn the card, they shimmer different colours.  I created a “bokeh” background by colouring with a B60 and B63 Marker and then dotted some blending soloution in spots to give it that mottled, spotted look that is so nice in photos.  

A couple of dainty bluebirds join the scene.  

And the sentiment, lyrics from the Christmas Hymn, Joy to the World, make a festive greeting.  

Here’s the Copics I used above.  Appreciate you joining me today!  Have a good weekend.  

Julie Koerber

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Heaven and Nature Sing