Thank you for Casestudychallenge

Hi Everyone.  Happy Memorial Day.   I hope you all had a fabulous day with your friends and family and took a few minutes in the day to pay tribute to those who have served – or are serving -  their country and especially those that lost their lives for their country.  It is because of their sacrifice that we continue to enjoy the freedom that we have.

I did manage to spend a little time in my craft room today.  One of the challenges I played along with is casestudychallenge.   Maile Belles is the featured artist this month and I fell in love with the color scheme on her card, the placement of the images and, finally, the leaves.  

I decided to bring out on of my favorite retiring sets – Friends 24 7.  It's one of the sets that I will never part with and will continue to use.  We just don't have anything like this in the catty and I love this bird image.  It's very versatile and can be inked up in any color.   I decided to go with Strawberry Slush (my most favorite SU pink evah!).   I stamped it onto a piece of scrap Whisper White card stock and then fussy cut around it.   Next I stamped just the branch and leaves onto a piece of Whisper White cardstock and ran it through my Big Shot with the Apothecary framelits.  This was popped onto the card base with Dimensionals, right after I had added the sentiment.  I cut some leaves with my SU Leaves Sizzlit and stamped over the leaves with the retired SU "Sanded" background stamp.   Adding the hatch detail to the leaves, just added a little more interest.  

All that was left was for me to glue down the leaves and pop the pretty pink bird up using Stampin' Dimensionals.  A couple of rhinestones helped finish off the card.

I decided to color the bottom half of the bird with my Blushing Bride marker, just to soften the white that would have been there otherwise.   Of course, I couldn't resist adding an eye for the bird.  I just cannot use this stamp and not put an eye on the bird!   I took a tiny little rhinestone and colored it with my Copics marker.  Once it was dry, I added it to the bird.

I was really pleased with it and think you can see the inspiration card in it :-)  It took a fair amount of time to create because it was so fiddly.  Also, with so much white space, keeping clean hands and a clean work surface is essential.   Don't ask me how I know that… let me say, it's one of the reasons that it took me so long!  My original card was almost complete when I got Soft Suede ink on the card…. and not where it was meant to be either! 🙂

On a personal note

Whilst I was standing at my craft desk, I noticed a doe outside eating grass.  I decided to snap a quick shot of her

I was just about to put my camera down when I saw a little flash…..  This is what I saw.  

Seriously.. she's hardly taller than the grasses – and they aren't tall!   She is so young and so adorable.   She quickly caught up to Mom

Isn't that awesome?   It brings a smile to my face and warmth to my heart.

As always, thank you for stopping by my little neck of the stamping woods :-)   Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

Card ingredients – all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted:

• Card stock:  Whisper White.   base – Gina K
• Stamps:  Friends 24 7.   Sentiment:   Express Yourself (2013-2014 Hostess Set)
• Inks:  Strawberry Slush.  Soft Suede.  Pear Pizzazz.  Blushing Bride
• Accessories:  Rhinestones (Hero arts)
• Tools:  Big Shot.  Apothecary Framelit.  Leaves Sizzlit