Blue Heron

Good Morning. This must be a bad photo day because I can not get a good photo of this card; it is much prettier in real life!

 Today I wanted to work with Susan's Blue Heron from the CountryScapes Critters 5 die set.  I always love to see these beautiful birds.  My granddaughter is away at college, but when she goes to the park and sees a blue heron, she always sends me a picture, because she remembers how much we used to love seeing them.  I have tried to duplicate one of these pictures.

I started with a piece of Soft Finish Cardstock, measuring 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches; the finished card is 6 x 6.   I love the texture in this card stock.   Susan's CountryScapes Cloud die was used to create a stencil for the cloudy sky. 

Two blue heron were die cut and colored with markers.  Blue heron are often found around cattails, so I used CountryScapes Country Flora 1 dies and die cut four cattails and two grass.  They were sponged with Distress Inks, then to create the fuzzy cattails, I add Susan's brown pollen.  Each blade of grass was cut down the center to make thinner blades.  Both the leaves on the cattails and the grass were colored on the back so some of them could be bent down to look realistic.

 Karen's Outdoor Edges dies were used to create the background across the lake.  The tree die was taped to green card stock, then the "hill" die taped below.  I wanted to have an uneven water line.  A second tree edge was die cut and alternated behind the first die cut trees, to give it more depth.  A brown marker was used to draw along the bottom of the "grass", to resemble dirt.

The bottom of the card was sponged blue.  The cattails/grass die cuts were glued in the water.  A white marker was used to create ripples in the water.  The two blue heron were glued on, then a black marker used to draw in water wave lines around the cattails and the blue heron's feet.

To finish the card, Joset Designs Rainbow Sky die set was used to die cut the sun and dimensional clouds.

The following products can be purchased from Elizabeth Craft Designs:

CountryScapes Critters 5
CountryScapes Cloud Grass
CountryScapes Country Flora 1
Outdoor Edges
Rainbow Sky
Soft Finish Cardstock