I had planned to make an exception this week and post a project that would not involve the use of the bird punch, but then I got quite a surprise. I just couldn’t believe it when my Heliconia card was selected for this past week’s featured upload for Splitcoaststampers Stampin’ Up! gallery. Wow! I never expected anything like that to happen! All of a sudden my blog received a welcome avalanche of new visitors interested in seeing different ways to use this punch. I wanted to make it really worth everybody’s time by showing yet another way to use it, and was hoping to post this card earlier, but my days have just been too long and full. Unlike those cuties on my card I’m no Spring chicken, and by the time I could finally sit down and get some stamping done, all I could think of was to hit the pillow.
Well, at least I did manage to get it all done a few days before Easter, and the chicks are so easy to make. Of all the different ways I have used the bird punch, this is the easiest and quickest. So here are all the details and instructions.
SUPPLIES
Stamp Sets: Happy Moments (Sale-a-Bration… only 3 days left), Inspired by Nature (111656), Itty Bitty Backgrounds (114996)
Papers: Very Vanilla, Blush Blossom, Barely Banana textured, Certainly Celery, Sweet Pea Paper Stack (117161, from the Occasions Mini Catalog)
Ink: Barely Banana, Certainly Celery, Rose Regal, Pretty in Pink, Blush Blossom, Basic Brown
Accessories: XL 2-step bird punch, 1/16” handheld circle punch, scallop oval punch (optional), sponges, blender pen, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, mini blue dots.
INSTRUCTIONS
The background was stamped on a 2-1/8” x 3-1/2” piece of Very Vanilla, using sponges and the masking technique. The grass is from Inspired by Nature, and the ‘sand grains’ are from one of the Itty Bitty Background stamps. The pink mat is a 2-3/8” x 3-3/4” piece of Blush Blossom that was sponged with Rose Regal. The embossed mat is 5” x 3-3/4” Very Vanilla. The chicks were punched out of one of the Sweet Pea designer papers and sponged in Barely Banana. The flowers were stamped in Basic Brown on Very Vanilla card stock, then colored with a blender pen using Blush Blossom, Pretty in Pink, then Rose Regal. The stems are Certainly Celery and cut by hand. The butterfly was cut out of one of the Sweet Pea designer papers. –I just want to point out that I used the digital download version of the Sweet Pea designer papers, and used My Digital Studio to print just the size or portion of the paper I needed for the chicks and the butterfly –.
THE CHICKS
After punching the body, insert it through the body hole of the punch as shown below. Position it so you get a nice round little belly and just a hint of a tail. If it doesn’t come out perfect, don’t forget the sanding block!
After punching the wing, insert it through the hole of the Scallop Oval punch as shown below. If you do not own this punch, just cut the wing in a wavy manner with your scissors. It doesn’t have to be perfect little scallops.
Snip off just a small part of the beak, making it a little smaller. Sponge with Barely Banana. Punch a hole for the eye with the 1/16” handheld circle punch, then glue a small piece of black card stock right behind that hole. Now adhere the wing with a mini glue dot, and your chick is ready to adorn a card!
THE MASKED BACKGROUND
Cut a sheet of paper at least 3″ larger and wider than your piece of card stock. Tear it but not all the way across, keeping a margin that you will use to secure this two-part mask to your work surface. Put a bit of temporary adhesive on the back of your piece of card stock and secure it onto your grid paper. Position your ‘mask’ so that the tear is exactly where you want the cut-off between the ground and the tall grass, and secure it with a piece of tape. Fold the bottom flap back, as shown below, then sponge and stamp.
Then fold back the top flap of the mask and place the bottom flap over the stamped section. Move your piece of card stock up slightly till you see just a hairline of the stamped section — if you omit this you will have a gap between the 2 sections. Now sponge and stamp as shown in the following two photos.
Thanks so much for your interest in my projects. Hope you liked this one… more coming soon.