Spellbinders: Birdhouses Through the Seasons Collection

Hello there.  It’s been a rough week.  My father passed away this past Tuesday.  I have several scheduled posts starting with this one, and will be taking a breather from blogland... so sorry I won’t be visiting your blogs.

So today I am excited to share a couple of cards made with the Spellbinders Birdhouses Through the Seasons Collection designed by Vicky Papaioannou.  There are four birdhouse die sets for each season, a birds die set and a sentiment stamp set in the collection.  All sets are adorable and can be used interchangeably.  I have two of the sets and since Christmas cards are my favourite to make, I started with the Build a Winter Birdhouse.

Here is what is included in the set.

The birdhouse was die cut from white Woodgrain paper by Memory Box.  I used my scoring tool to score it every half inch before die cutting it out. The roof part was die cut three times from blue paper, cut out with scissors then stacked for dimension.  The bells were also die cut from the same blue paper while the mistletoe and berries were die cut from X-Press It cardstock.  All colouring and/or shading were done with Copic markers.  The bird (retired) was stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on X-Press It cardstock, coloured with Copic markers and fussy cut out.

I pictured this as a birdhouse ornament hanging from a Christmas tree, so created the background by ink smooshing Evergreen Bough and Peacock Feathers distress oxide (DOx) inks onto Bristol paper.  Dried it with my heat tool after each colour, then dry embossed it with a pine branch embossing folder.  Stamped the sentiment from My Favorite Things Bitty Holiday Wishes with Salty Ocean DOx on Bristol paper and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.  Assembled the card onto a white card base and added Crystal Glaze on the berries and highlights with a white gel pen to finish.

Moving onto the opposite end of the season, my next card features the Build a Summer Birdhoude.  I had something else in mind, but it didn’t work out, so I went clean and simple (CAS).

Here is what is included in this set.

On a Bristol panel, masked then ink blended Shaded Lilac, Spun Sugar, Squeezed Lemonade and Salty Ocean distress inks to create the ocean background scene.  

All the die-cut elements on the card were die cut from various scraps of cardstock, trimmed and pieced together as needed.  The sentiment from Poppy Stamps Birthday Blowout was in my stash.  It was white heat embossed on black cardstock.  Popped the panel up with two pieces of thick white card stock for a little dimension to finish.

And here they are again.

A tweet collection, don’t you think?   Fun new products are always being added at Spellbinders and you can check them out HERE.  Thank you for stopping by.

Challenges:

The winter birdhouse card is heading over to the Alphabet Challenge - B is for Birds