What Are They Saying?

So, once I saw that today's color challenge on SCS featured kraft cardstock, I knew I'd need to play. I *love* kraft cardstock and I've featured it a lot here recently. Today, I'm pairing it with the two other challenge colors, both Bold Brights, and a big trend in the stamping world--birds. The way they're positioned here, it makes me wonder, what in the world are they talking about? Maybe that they hope spring is coming soon? Who knows . . .

These fun bird images come from the Doodle Factory line at Starving Artistamps. I stamped them on shimmery white cardstock using Versamark, then heat embossed them with black embossing powder. I used an aquapainter and reinkers to watercolor the bird images. I love the vibrant colors against the bold black lines and shimmery white background. I added tiny Twinkle stickers for the eyes. I included a close up photo here to try to capture the shimmery look and the little twinkle detail.

I used a row of plastic domed accents from the floral section at Michaels along the bottom edge of the Green Galore cardstock panel. Because these are much cheaper, it's much easier for me to use a lot of these than it is to use a lot of the Dew Drops. I attached them with drops of Crystal Effects. Even those are a more economical choice, I still like the Dew Drops better. The panel is stamped repeatedly with the leaf image that's part of this stamp set using Green Galore ink. The tone on tone stamping creates a subtle pattern. Now that I think about it, I guess the leaves could be interpreted to be bird feathers when you use them with the bird images.

I went to vote and didn't have to wait in line at all, even though a pretty high voter turnout was predicted for my area. I was glad to have the day off because I woke up in the middle of the night with a sore throat. My throat still hurts tonight and my body aches, too. I'm hoping to be able to fight this off quickly--I have a few work commitments this week that I need to keep and both a class and a shoebox swap to attend this weekend . . .

Materials Used:
bird and leaf images (Doodle Factory Fish & Birds set, Starving Artistamps); Versamark; Tempting Turquoise, Green Galore, Kraft, and Shimmery White cardstock, Tempting Turquoise and Green Galore Classic inks, aquapainter, black embossing powder, Crystal Effects, corner rounder, dimensionals (Stampin' Up!); plastic dome accents, turquoise dotted grosgrain (Michaels); rectangle and scalloped rectangle dies (Nestabilities); Twinkle stickers (Amuse)