DCM - January Elemental Inspiration

Goodness me, this first week of January has certainly been an interesting one. It feels like it has flown by, but there have definitely been moments when it felt like Christmas was aaaages ago! :(

Nevertheless, I feel like I am getting back into gear and one thing that has helped me do that in a crafty way this week was working on my card for the new Elemental Inspiration challenge over on the Daring Cardmakers blog.

Last weekend I sat down at my desk and really tried hard to make something that wasn't a Christmas card, I could have easily made another one - I was still in the Christmas cardmaking zone.

But no, I wanted to get back to other themes and occasions...

I pulled the products I knew I definitely wanted to use (some birds and pine branches), but that was as far as my creativity was taking me that day, so I looked for a little colour inspiration for the bird stamps I had got out, and in the end my card is inspired by a project I found on Pinterest by Keeway Tsoa.

Stamps: PTI - Brushed Birds, Winnie & Walter - Sending You
Dies: PTI - Brushed Birds, Pinkfresh Studio - Diagonal Stitched Rectangles, Sizzix - Tim Holtz - Holiday Greens, Sizzix - Tim Holtz - Mini Holiday Greens
Other: Distress inks

So it's a bit of a wintry look, especially with the splatters of pearlescent white watercolour paint, and white pen details on the pine boughs, but I have already sent this out as my first birthday card of the year.

The background is Bristol cardstock blended with Lawn Fawn Kiddie Pool ink and Mermaid Lagoon Distress ink.

The branches are cut from watercolour cardstock and coloured with Forest Moss Distress ink. I used two sizes of pine boughs from the Holiday Greens sets below.

The birds are stamped on 80lb Neenah and have 3D foam tape mounted at the top, but are stuck down with glue to the branch.

The sentiment is stamped in Versafine Onyx black over the splatter - I was a little heavy-handed in the Misti, so it's not quite as crisp as I'd have liked, but without the Misti I'd never have got it lined up like that. ;)

Make sure you check out the lovely projects from the rest of the design team here, and play along if you can!

Happy crafting!

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PTI - Brushed Birds stamps Shop at: MISC | SSS	Winnie & Walter - Sending You stamps Shop at: EH | SHC | SSS	PTI - Brushed Birds dies Shop at: MISC | SSS	Pinkfresh Studio - Diagonal Stitched Rectangles dies Shop at: EH | MISC | SBC
Sizzix - Tim Holtz - Holiday Greens dies Shop at: AZ | SBC	Sizzix - Tim Holtz - Mini Holiday Greens dies Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Distress ink pad - Forest Moss Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Distress ink pad - Mermaid Lagoon Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Lawn Fawn - Kiddie Pool ink pad Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC	Lawn Fawn - Walnut ink pad Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC | SHC	The Stamp Market - Blush Pink ink pad Shop at: MISC	The Stamp Market - Bubble Gum ink pad Shop at: MISC
Versafine - Onyx Black ink pad Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Neenah Classic Crest 110 lb smooth Solar White cardstock Shop at: AZ | EH | SSS	Neenah Classic Crest 80 lb smooth Solar White cardstock Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC | SSS	Strathmore Bristol cardstock Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Tim Holtz - 4.25 x 5.5 Distress Watercolor Cardstock Shop at: AZ | SSS	Kuretake Gansai Tambi 36-pan watercolour set Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Uniball Signo White pen Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	3M Scotch double-sided foam tape Shop at: AZ | EH
Lawn Fawn - Stamp shammy cleaner Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC | SHC	MISTI stamping tool Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Cosmetic blending brushes Shop at: AZ	Taylored Expressions - Blender Brushes Shop at: MISC
Tim Holtz - Distress Sprayer Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Stampers Anonymous Splat Box Shop at: AZ | SBC | SHC	Waffle Flower - Mini Media Mat Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC	Ranger - Artist brush set Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Sizzix - Big Shot machine Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Sizzix - Sidekick machine Shop at: AZ | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (small) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC

Comments

[Angelnorth]

Sweet little bird family and that pine branch looks so realistic - love it Nat!

[dolly/scrapthat]

Tweet birdies! :) TFS

[Miri]

Wow! I love the pink birds on this beautiful handmade background. I was still stuck in Christmas card mode ... although it feels ages ago ;-).