Cute Birdhouse

This was such a fun card to design.  As you know, Joan's Gardens is now selling stamps and dies from My Favorite Things.  The products I used are:  My Favorite Things "Contempo Cage and Stamp Set", "Homespun Birdhouse and Stamp Set", "Branch with Leaves", and "Fresh Cut Grass".  The flourish is the Marianne Design (LR015) flourish.  The small flowers were punched with the Punch Bunch "Super Giant Mega Lilacs/Daphne" punch.  The Sizzix embossing folders used are the "Birds and Wreath", "Bricked", and "Beaded Ribbons".  

This is a 5"x7" card.  I started by embossing the background with the Sizzix "Birds and Wreath" embossing folder.  I used chalks to color the inside of the oval blue.  The birdhouse pieces were die cut using different colors of card stock and embossed.  Below is a  picture of the stamp set and the die cuts in this set.  I used the "Bricked" embossing folder to emboss the body of the house and the "Beaded Ribbons" to emboss the edge of the roof.  There is a stamp in this set that you can use for wood grain if you like.  I die cut the house using a light blue card stock then used "Weathered Wood" Distress Stain to rub over the embossed area.  I love how quick and easy it is to color using these stains - they have a sponge in the top and you just rub them on the card stock. In the embossing folder there are area's were there are not bricks, and I used one of these sections for the doorway.  I'm not sure that looks good or not.  You can kind of see that area in the picture below - it is kind of in the upper middle.  That area was colored in with a Copic grey marker.  The birdhouse was glued together and attached to the middle of the oval embossed area with dimensional dots.  

The bird I used is from the "Contempo Cage" dies.  It was sponged, the wing glued on then attached to the birdhouse with a dimensional dot.  A small Kaiser Craft black pearl was added to the eye.  The branch was die cut using brown card stock and sponged with brown Distress Inks for shading.  The leaves were die cut, shaped, and added to the branch.  The flowers were created by using the Punch Bunch Lilacs/Daphne punch.  I love having this punch because it has different sizes of small flowers and leaves.  In the center of each flower I glued in a small yellow bead.

Under the scene, I used one of the sentiment stamps from the Contempo Cage and Stamp Set.  The sentiment reads "You're So Incredibly Tweet".  Along the bottom edge I added the Die-Namics "Fresh Cut Grass" die cut. 

All the products I used on this card can be purchased from Joan's Gardens.