Spring is just around the Corner?

Welcome to Magpieheaven where today the sun is shining and it actually is not raining! I so want to think that spring is on the way; but I fear that we have more harsh weather to endure before that happens! Never mind, 'Hope springs eternal...' as they say, so, as I had a card to make for my Uncle Derek's eighty-ninth birthday, spring colours and images leapt into my mind and off I went! For this card, I used the terrific Artistic Outpost, 'Birds of a Feather' plate and I should like to enter this birthday card for the January Referral, where the theme is 'Anything Goes'. Click here if you would like to find out more - there are still a few days left!

I have used these images before, but it never ceases to amaze me how different the same images can appear on different projects! I started with these elements! I am giving this card by hand, so I allowed myself lots of layers, including my favourite corrugated card, found on my daughter's floor: I was tidying her room while  she's on a college trip to Amsterdam! I had lots of fun sponging my favourite blues and greens of Fresco paint onto these surfaces, blending them and then stamping with Archival ink. I used Antarctic Fresco Finish, Lake Wanaka, South Pacific and Guacamole. I then stenciled and did a little random script stamping using Wendy Vecchi's lovely Fern Green Archival. Stamping on corrugated card is never going to have that 'perfect' look, so I went with it! I used the stamp without a block to give a worn look to the text and images almost like a palimpsest where new layers are added to old.

I recently treated myself to some Wendy Vecchi Embossing paste and I used this for the first time through a Stencil girl stencil of leaves. it does dry a beautiful, gold.

I stamped the nest onto card, coloured with Antarctic, Guacamole and edged with Potting Soil Archival. I then added these little leaves to give a sense of peeping into the nest between the leaves of a tree. I sponged the eggs in the nest with a little Wendy Vecchi Cornflower Blue Archival. You can probably see that I edged my corrugated card with a touch of Aquamarine and Green Amber Treasure Gold and some dry-brushed Little Black Dress.

I stamped on some blue patterned paper, which I coloured a little with Frescos and Aged Mahogany DIs to make it co-ordinate more with my project. I curled the corners and added a little White Fire TG.

I painted this piece of torn card with Stone at the centre and Antarctic and Lake Wanaka then Chocolate Pudding and Little Black Dress. My leaves are stenciled in Tinned Peas Fresco.

And here are the elements all together with a few additions, which I felt were needed to pull the whole thing together! I also added some gold UTEE to the edges of my little robin tag. You may be able to see why I don't make cards so much these days - at least not the kind you have to mail! I get so carried away with textures and embellishments they end up impossible to fit through anything other than an outsize cat-flap!

The eggs are from the book page stamp, stamped in black Archival onto card sponged with a blend of Space Cadet and Guacamole Freso and then fussy cut and attached to the card with dimensional foam pads. I placed a tiny blob of Glossy Accents over the robin's eye to make it gleam and added some seam-binding coloured with Evergreen Bough and Peeled Paint Distress Inks.

I placed my sentiment inside the Tim Holtz book-plate from his tag die set. The Crackle Glaze is Guacamole over Little Black Dress with just a touch of Green Amber Treasure Gold and I threaded some thin wire through with a handmade bead on it to suggest a little spring - sorry for the awful pun. I make beads from triangles of magazine pages wound around a cocktail stick, stuck together and then glazed by rolling them in Versamark and dipping them in clear Embossing Powder and melting the EP with a heat-gun. I added a little Limelight Fresco to the edges of the corrugated card in places too!

Now my card is complete and ready for my son to take to his Great-Great Uncle. Outside my window a robin has started to sing! But - guess what - now it's raining! Thank you so much for stopping by Magpieheaven today. I hope your week is a rewarding and a creative one - whatever the weather!