Blue Jays & Cardinals

Can I just say I love this Tim Holtz bird die? This die was a free with purchase at Simon Says Stamp a while back, and I’m honestly not sure there was any other way to get him. I’m so glad I opted to snag this little guy.

The first time using this die I opted for traditional Blue Jays and Cardinals for my color palette. I paired them with my chicken wire embossing folder and some fun speech bubbles for greetings. 

I cut card panels with the wonky stitched rectangles die from Simon Says. Then I inked the embossing folder with Pumice Stone Distress Oxide ink before running each of the panels through the die cutting machine. This gave me a more realistic wire effect. 

Using some speech bubble dies I had in my stash I created some fun little messages to go with these cute birds. I pulled greetings from several stamp sets, giving each bird a different message. I popped all the speech bubbles up on foam tape.

These birds were a lot of fun to use and I'll be working with them again in the future. I have ideas for creating some with pattern paper. I'd also like to snag the other Tim Holtz bird dies to add to my collection. 

You'll notice this last card's background is embossed differently from the others. This is what happens when you don't pay attention to what you're doing and ink the wrong side of the folder, lay your paper in and then realize it was the wrong side. I used it anyway, but I do prefer the other look where the hexagons of space between the wire are the raised embossing.

The theme of my posts as of late really is about using what you have in your stash. Check out what you have and see if you can create something inspired by these cards, without having to have all the exact same bits. Have fun!