Hello Spring!

I spent the weekend potting up some flowers for my backyard patio.  The birds were singing their hearts out! It reminded me of two adorable die sets from Joset for Elizabeth Craft Designs:  The first one is:  1250 – Birdhouse

This set is so cute and comes with a pc. that makes snow for on top of the roof.  I cut the roof and stand from brown cardstock, the house from blue, and the “lines” pc.,  and extra “heart” pc. twice, from white.  Color one of the white hearts yellow with Copic Y08.

The second one is the coordinated set:  1249 – Birds

                                                                         

I cut all the pcs. in this set from white cardstock and colored them with PanPastels Burnt Umber and colored the tiny eye circles with Black Copic Marker.  The birds feet were also colored with Copic Y08  Put a foam dot behind the birds head centered over the eye holes but don’t remove the protective paper back yet.  The birds bundled up for winter with the snow on the roof of the birdhouse makes an adorable winter card.

Next cut two ovals.  Cut one blue oval from the largest die in this set by Elizabeth Craft Designs: 1173 – Dotted Scallop Ovals

Cut a white oval from the largest die in this set from:

                                        Elizabeth Craft Designs:   1113 – Stiched Ovals

                      

The next step is to color a back ground on the white oval.  Using Elizabeth Craft Designs stencil called “Clouds and Grass“, I stenciled Clouds using PanPastel’s  Ultra Marine Blue and Dairylide Yellow.  I placed the assembled birds where they would be glued down to know where to stop the clouds and stencil the grass.

I made a stencil for the grass that matched the grass dies I used.  I adhered double sided adhesive to cardstock and cut out this die: Elizabeth Craft Designs 914 – Outdoor Edges – 3 die set  This is a way to get more from your dies.  As you can see from the picture below, you use the negative pc. for the stencil.

Assemble the birdhouse but don’t insert the yellow heart yet.  Put a little pc. of paper behind the heart space.  Put a drop of glue into the heart space and then the yellow heart.  Put a large foam dot behind the house.   Color the tiny eyes with Black Copic Marker.  Color the grass pcs. with green Copic Marker.

The picture above shows the bottom third of the white oval where I first stenciled the grass and then added PanPastel Burnt Umber here and there amongst the grass.  The two little grass pcs. are from a die set that has just recently been discontinued.  The DiesRUs Store carries a lot of little grass die choices for this step.

The blue corner pieces were cut from this die set from: Impression Obsession Brick House

The finished card measures 5.5 x 7″.  Make a base card by scoring a piece of 8.5 x 11″ pc. of white cardstock at 5.5″.  Fold at the score line for a book fold card.  Cut a background mat from blue gingham cardstock that measures 5.25 x 6.75″ and adhere to the front of the white base card.

Assemble the Oval focal point.  Adhere the birdhouse to the stenciled white oval but leave the one slanted brace on the right side loose to slip a pc. of grass under it then glue down.  The house it’s self will be adhered by now removing the back of the foam dot.  Now adhere this completed oval to the blue scalloped one and adhere this stack to the front of the card as pictured.  Glue the little blue corner pcs. to the corners of the gingham mat.  I added a “Hello” sentiment I had in my stash but this project could be for almost any occasion.  The little hearts are from the birdhouse die set.

That’s It

Thanks for taking a look at the tutorial and don’t forget to stop by daily at the DiesRUs Inspiration Blog.  We love to see what YOU make for the challenge blog!

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Other products used:

Elizabeth Craft Designs: White soft finish cardstock 8.5 x 11″, Clear Double Side Adhesive.  Retired Karen Burniston’s Garden Bench Pop Up (grass pcs.)

Sizzix Big Shot Plus

Beacon’s Kids Choice Glue