'A little bird told me........' birthday card

I made this card for a friend's birthday - which is today so it's safe to post this :)

I really wanted to distress the background myself but time wasn't on my side to have a real 'play' - mental note to self to plan ahead more! I used a cream card and layered Papermania double sided paper onto it. This paper is great as it has a bit of a vintage look to it, pink and cream on one side and distressed brown on the other. The bottom of the paper has been edged using a Martha Stewart 'Floral Vine' deep edge punch. This is the first Martha Stewart punch I've bought and am now a total convert!

I used a Woodware clear set stamp set called 'Bird Song' and paper pieced the little bird onto the reverse side of the paper (ie. brown) and stuck him onto the card before stamping over the top with his rather splendid cage - using a Brilliance 'Pearlescent Chocolate' ink pad. I also paper pieced a wing so that it looks as if it's on the outside of the cage to give more dimension. Some of this detail has been lost though as the ink is almost the same colour as the brown distressed paper - little lesson there I think :) The birdie's little pink eye was just a teensy bit of the 'confetti' made when I punched the bottom of the pink and cream paper! And even the little musical notes come in the stamp set!

The sentiment was stamped onto plain cream card using 'Pearlescent Chocolate', punched into a circle with my SU punch then layered onto a larger scalloped SU punched circle in the distressed brown.

The flowers were fun too - they're creamy coloured embossed Prima flowers which I swished over with Pearlescent Orchid and Pearlescent Chocolate on a blending sponge, and their centres are card candy (I deepened the pink card candy with some more 'swishing with a blending sponge'). I'll be using more of these flowers - you get loads in a packet and they are made so that you can totally colour match them to your project. Yummy!

Then, before attaching the flowers I added a piece of really gorgeous lacy cream ribbon. I got some of this, also in white, ages ago in Hobbycraft and it's so soft and silky - up until now I've just stroked it and looked at it, as I'm sure many people do with crafty goodies before they realise it really should be used!!

Thanks for calling by!

Di
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