The base of the card is a folded half-sheet of Basic Black card stock. I think the original card using Secret Sea card stock but I didn't have a full sheet left so I opted for black. Besides, I think the color around cardinals eyes is supposed to be black, so I went with the black. I taped a 5-1/4" x 4" piece of Basic White to the inside. I also cut another 5-1/4" x 4" piece of Basic White and taped it to the front. I should have waited with that because of the stenciling but I wasn't thinking. Well, I kind of was, I was thinking, "I don't have that stencil." But I was able to make that stencil using the die in the "Stitched Stocking" bundle. I cut the card stock for the stencil to fit the area and then I used a blending brush and Real Red ink to stencil it. To make sure I had the stencil were I wanted it, I lightly traced around the center diamond shaped piece using a pencil. Once I saw where my stencil should line up, I erased the pencil marks. I used a kneadable eraser. I can not express enough how great these erasers are. They only pick up the graphite and never mess up the texture of the paper. Being it's kneadable, I will take a piece off of it and from it into a tube that will fit in my mechanical pencil. I just have to have it easily available. Okay, sales pitch done! LOL And after looking at the original card, though it was a bit out of focus, the right side could have been die cut and red card stock added behind it. I like the stencil look myself.
The green strip measures 2" x 5-1/4" and it's from the "A Stitched Season" Designer Series Paper (DSP) package. I taped it to the front of the card about 3/8" from the edge of the Basic White layer.
I cut the birds next. They are from that same sheet of DSP. You get two sheets of this design and on those sheets there's only one bird that faces left so when I cut the DSP for the strip, I made sure I avoided the birds.
There's a die in the set that has a present on it and I think that was what was used on the original card for the layer behind the birds. It didn't dawn on me until the card was finished that that's where the square probably came from. I just measured the bird piece and cut the Basic Black squares accordingly. They measure 1-5/8" x 1-5/8" each. I taped the birds on top and taped each bird to the front of the card. I lined up the bottom edge on the bottom one so it looked like there was equal spacing on the bottom and both sides. I did the same with the top bird.
The words are from the same bundle and were stamped with Basic Black ink on Basic White card stock that I pre-cut to 2" x 1-1/4". I usually stamp my words and cut the paper after but here I wanted to make sure I had the exact size I needed. I taped the word piece to the center of the card. I just eyed it.
I didn't have the dark stitched ribbon that was used on the original card but I did have some retired Real Red stitched ribbon, so I used it and it worked just fine.
For the bling, I didn't have the buttons that were used in the so I added a couple of retired "Polished Dots" and the card was done.
This was a fun card to make but a bit disappointing that I can only make two like this. I might just hang on to the other bird to see if something on Pinterest comes up using it. Something that I just have to give a try to.
Thank you SO very much for taking your time to stop in and see today's Christmas card,
Wanda













