Brighten the Way

Greetings friends, Mindy with you today to share my card sample for the Winter Birds Challenge #68 at Classy Cards n' Such.  My card is titled Brighten the Way, and features a winter-like background with two beautiful Cardinals, one male, one female.


I started with two embossing folders, Lattice by Crafts Too! and Swirl Frame by Nellie Snellen and embossed a sheet of white card stock with each one. I then trimmed around the Swirl Frame and cut out the oval opening, and glittered around the opening for a little bling. I then die cut two of the Cardinal- Right Facing bird dies from Dee's Distinctively and one of the Branch Set 1 also from Dee's Distinctively. I cut one bird from red card stock, and one from kraft colored stock. The branch was cut from kraft colored stock also, and I used a marker to give it brown grain lines to look like a branch. I brushed on some Light Molding Paste to look like snow on the branch, but you could also use Dreamweaver Regular White Embossing Paste for the look of snow. I also added a bit of glitter to the branch to give it some winter sparkle.

I colored the female cardinal with some Distressed Markers from Ranger and used my Tim Holtz Water Brush by Ranger to blend the colors on the wings, tail, and topknot feathers. I used Foam Pads- Large by Joy! Crafts to adhere the birds to the card front.  The sentiment used was from the stamp set Flowers in Bloom by Sweet and Sassy Stamps, and was stamped on white card stock backed with Silver Mirror card stock.  To complete the card, I adhered a strip of ribbon trim down the fold to add a bit of color and shine.

I hope you have enjoyed my Winter Birds, and will join our challenge this week with some of your own. Happy Stamping!