Love Is In The Air

Yesterday, I mentioned receiving my first order from Cornish Heritage Farms. I love these stamps. I've always loved the way rubber stamps, but I've come to prefer the convenience and ease of use associated with photopolymer. Unmounted stamps (such as the ones I ordered from Cornish Heritage Farms) are the best of both worlds. There is no cumbersome wood block and you have the fab-u-lous clarity you get from rubber. Wahoo! I ordered the Pretty Birds and Spring Trees sets from the Kim Hughes Collection. I absolutely love her style and I love playing with these images. Today's card features stamps from the Pretty Birds set. It is fairly simple, but I had a lot of fun putting it together.



First, I positioned my birds and the sentiment on a large acrylic block. I knew I wanted to include a punched paper heart between the birds' beaks so I did a test stamp on a piece of scrap paper. When I was happy with the position, I stamped the images in charcoal ink onto smooth white cardstock. I like the smooth white best for stamping and for images that I intend to color. If I don't have smooth cardstock on hand I will often flip over a piece of Bazzill and use the smoother side for my project. It works relatively well - even on solid images.

Then, I colored my birds and the sentiment using Prismacolor Pencils and mineral spirits. The Pretty Birds set has several images that just scream to be colored! I think that may be one of my favorite things about the set.

To make my focal image pop I used a mat of Papertrey Ink's Pure Poppy cardstock. I used my Threading Water punch to add the scalloped detail at the bottom. I rounded the corners and then adhered the layers to the card front using foam tape.

Finally, the heart was punched from Pure Poppy and added to the space between the birds (also with foam tape). Like I said - pretty simple, but I think I am pleased. I hope you all have a great day and I'll see you next time...

Recipe:
Cardstock: Blue - Bazzill Basics; Ultimate White - Strathmore; Pure Poppy - Papertrey Ink
Ink: Charcoal - Palette
Stamps: Pretty Bird (Kim Hughes Collection) - Cornish Heritage Farms
Tools: Threading Water Border Punch - Fiskars, mini folk heart punch, corner rounder - EK Success
Other: Colored Pencils - Prismacolor; Foam Tape - Scotch; mineral spirits