February Stamping Project: Best Birds Happy Birthday Greeting Card

 

My February project is a card that I made for a team swap back in October. It's a really fun card that stamps up quickly - you can stamp a stack and have birthday or congratulations card for a year's worth of celebrations.

Supply list for 16 cards

• Crumb Cake cardstock (8 8.5x11" sheets) for card bases
• Pink Pirouette cardstock (1.25 12x12" sheets from Subtles collection pack) for flowers
• Very Vanilla cardstock (1.5 8.5x11" sheets) for birds and tags
• Tip Top Taupe cardstock (1 8x11.5" sheet) for branches
• Birds and Blooms thinlits dies
• Flower Fair thinlits dies
• Crumb Cake and Tip Top Taupe inks
• Best Birds stamp set

How I made the cards:

1. Score each sheet of Crumb Cake before cutting in half to make two 4.25x5.5” card bases. Don’t fold the cards.
2. Stamp all over the front of the card with the background stamp using Crumbcake ink.
3. Stamp the inside bottom right of the card with the left facing (male) sparrow from Best Birds using Tip Top Taupe ink.
4. Use the large flower and smaller flower from the Flower Fair die set to die cut the large and small flowers for the front from Pink Pirouette paper. Here’s a tip - draw a grid pattern on the 12x12” sheet to make best use of your paper to cut the big flowers. Use the scraps from in-between to cut the small flowers.
5. Stamp 16 branches with Tip Top Taupe ink on Tip Top Taupe paper and die cut.
6. Stamp 16 right facing birds with Tip Top Taupe ink on Very Vanilla paper and die cut.
7. Assemble the bird, branch and flowers before sticking down to front of card. My tip - assemble one and then place a sheet of wax or parchment paper over it to use as a guide for the other pieces so they are all spaced the same.
8. Divide a sheet of Very Vanilla into 1.5x4.25" pieces for tags.
9. Stamp the desired greeting with Tip Top Taupe towards the right side of the edge of the tag.
10. Using a craft knife and ruler or Stampin’ Trimmer, cut out the tags. You can fussy cut the banner tail or use a hexagon punch.
11. Adhere the tags to the front of the card, fold in half and it’s ready to give!

Click for larger size!

I find that I use the Best Birds set a lot - you won't go wrong with purchasing this set for your Stampin' Up collection!

Dear Christine: Do I Need a Big Shot Die Brush?

Dear Christine - do I need a Big Shot die brush?

I must confess that one of the things that held me back from enjoying stamping was not having the right tools for the job. Sometimes there are things in the catalog that seem a little superfluous. Do you need a Big Shot die brush? Yes - especially if you purchased the Up & Away Thinlits Dies. I discovered the hard way that I definitely need the Big Shot die brush after poking out tons of little pieces from this lovely ornate die. Would you want to spend your time craft instead of cleaning dies with a piercing tool? Ooof!

 

While the Big Shot die brush will be going in on my next order, I have used it before. It comes with a foam pad and you just roll it over the die. The foam pad will wear with time, but you can always flip it over and use the other side or wear it evenly by not using it in the same spot.
 

Click for larger image

Not pictured - the mess all over the floor when I bumped the cutting mat! That's another problem to solve :-)