Bird House Holiday Greetings Card by Sara Cook

Hi everyone. I have a holiday card using the House Frame dies to create a bird house for the Serene Bird. I use the branch die to hang the bird house in this snowy scene.

Bird House:

Die cut the House Frame from Memory Box Kraft Woodgrain card stock and the fence from the Cream Woodgrain card stock. Die cut the House Frame Background from cream card stock and the heart from both the same cream card stock and then from the Kraft Woodgrain card stock. Trim the House Frame die at the first score line to create a frame. Take the Distress Oxide Antique Line ink pad and run it at an angle with the grain of the paper. Use your finger or small blending tool to blend the ink and add extra ink as needed. Make sure to ink the edges to create depth. Take the Kraft Woodgrain heart frame and do the same but with Distress Oxide ink in Crackling Campfire and then Barn Door. Ink blend the inside of the cream card stock die cut heart with Distress Oxide Antique Line ink and then use Ground Espresso making the outside darker then the center. Make sure the ink the edges. This helps to create depth. Take the Distress Oxide Weathered Wood ink pad and run it at an angle on the fence and the House Frame background die cuts. Center the Heart frame die in the center of the House Frame Background die cut and run through the die cut machine. Keep the heart frame die and glue it behind the red woodgrain die cut. Ink the edges with Distress Oxide Ground Espresso. Glue the inked wood House Frame on tope of the background. Tie some cream colored twine to the top of the house. Keep the end long to tie to the branch.

Serene Bird and Branch:

Die cut the bird dies from heavy weight cream card stock. Die cut the wings twice. Die cut the branch from the same cream card stock. Take a small bending tool, like a eyeshadow brush, and ink blend Distress Oxide Iced Spruce on the leaves. Then ink blend the branch with Distress Oxide Vintage Photo. Make sure to ink the edges of the die cuts. Ink blend the bird body in Distress Oxide Abandon Coral, stay light towards the bottom center of the bird and heavier on the tail and top of the head. Ink blend with Crackling Campfire. Ink blend the wing first with Crackling Campfire and then around the edges with Barn Door. Take the second wing die cut and trim just the top portion, following the cut lines. Heavily ink blend with Barn Door. Ink blend the beak with Mustard Seed. Add a dot with a fine tip black marker to the eye. Glue the beak and wings on the bird. Glue just the main branches, just a few drops, on top of each other, off setting the die cuts to make a longer branch. Tie the twine from the bird house in the center of the branch, only hanging about 1/4".

Background:

Take cream card stock and trim to 4" x 5 1/4". Ink blend with Distress Oxide inks from the center out staring with Stormy Sky and then Weathered Wood. Heavily spray with water and bleach solutions. I have a spray bottle that I keep with just about 1/10 of the bottle of bleach and the rest with water. Let the water set for a minute and take a towel and bot off the excess. Heat dry. I repeated the process a few times until I had the effect I wanted. I thought I had to start over but it turned out perfect.

Sentiment:

Die cut the middle sized die from the Banner Sentiment Trio set from cream card stock. Stamp Holiday Greetings from the Festive Christmas Greetings stamp set with Distress Oxide Barn Door ink in the center. Take a small blending tool and ink the edges up to the stitching with Distress Oxide Vintage Photo.

Assembly:

Adhere the bird house to the bottom center of the background panel. Glue the heart frame in the cut out. Glue the fence along the bottom center of the house. Glue the branch over the bird house, adding glue only to the main branch. Arrange and glue down some of the branches leading to the leaves to make the branch look more full. Add some white ink platers with thinned out gesso or a white spray ink. Let dry. Adhere the bird on top of the branch with foam tape, tucking it behind some of the leaves. Adhere the hear die cut in the bird house, tucking it behind the fence. Add the sentiment banner with foam tape to the bird house. Adhere to background to an A2 size brown panel and then to a A2 size cream side folded card. Add some Clear Fairy Drops around the card.