With 3 Things - Bird Card Series {by Rox Boyce}

Hello everyone

Rox (Reddirtcrafter) here with you today for a ''With 3 things'' challenge post.

For this challenge, PaperArtsy sends the same three items to 3 people from our blogging team. Typically we will receive a stamp, a stencil and a colour product. We have no clue what PaperArtsy HQ is going to send, the whole idea is to do something crafty in our personal style with these 3 items.

So let's take a look at what I received from PA HQ ...

I was excited to receive the three mystery items in the post and challenged myself to create a set of cards using just the beautiful stamp set EKC45 by Kay Carley, Printed Tissue paper PT11 (Birds) and Olive Tree Infusion (CS16).

I'll be showing you how I’ve used simple technique with these products to create a bundle of botanical inspired handmade cards.

I was delighted how many different looking cards I easily and quickly created using just the 3 products provided. This process is perfect for bulk card creating with minimal cost and product usage.

My idea was to use the botanical stamps from EKC45 by Kay Carley to create gardens for the birds to live in.

To start the process, I stamped the flowers and grasses in Versafine black ink on postcard sized cards. I let the stalks run off the card for a more nature effect, like a snapshot of a meadow. I tried to vary the composition among the cards, leaving a lot of white space for the future birds.

I mixed the Olive Tree Infusion with water on my stamping block, which allows you to see the opacity of the colour. With a superfine paint brush, I used this Infusion ink to colour in the stamped images. To create a watercolour look I wasn’t too fussed about perfect painting and happily left blank white spaces showing.

. 

As well as painting the floral elements I also splattered the infusions over the images to create extra detail and interest. I used the infusions to paint a border around the edge of the card too, which visually helps to direct your eye to the images within the border.

Now that the stamped images are complete, I added the additional element of tissue paper.

I used mini scissors to cut out the birds from Printed Tissue PT11 and adhered them to the card with a glue stick. I prefer a glue stick as it is easy to smooth out the wrinkles if needed, by lifting up and re-gluing if needed.

The tissue paper has beautiful text and stamped hall marks which add extra visual impact to the card. You can add as little or as much as you like as you get 4 big tissue pages. I didn’t even use one whole sheet in creating 8 cards, it certainly goes along way!

I used the Olive Tree Infusion to add colour to the bird with the same technique as the botanicals. I also added some splatters and a freehand frame of colour to tie all the element together.

I love how the opacity of the Infusions changes so freely. I especially like those unexpected little blobs of colour!

To finish off the cards, I mounted the cards on black card stock, creating a thin border, before machine stitching around the edges.

Then finally mounting on my blank card bases with craft glue.

While I have shown you my process with 1 card, I actually made a whole series!

Here are details of my favorite cards!

In making these cards I was truly delighted how beautiful the tissue paper was to work with. It looks great either painted with infusions or as it is, as the images are striking. There was a wonderful variety of bird images and accompanying texts, in stunning fonts. For someone who hadn’t played with the tissue paper, I’m now a convert!

Of course, you can create even more variations by using other colours of Infusions, pinks or blue for more tropical birds!

Instagram:Reddirtcrafter 

Facebook: Rox Boyce