GD: Clare Lloyd #3 A Little Bird Told Me

"Hi everyone, Clare here with my last project, but don't forget I'll be back again the first week of February with something completely different.

Today my project is very much less is more and it became even LESSER (what shocking grammar)…tee hee! You will understand what I mean when you read on"...

I started with a slim card blank for this project and used some low-tack masking tape to create a border to stamp through. My first piece of tape went one third across my card and the second right at the edge.

Then I stamped using Squiggly Ink Mini 15 using Black Archival Ink. 

As I did not heat dry the ink I gave it plenty of time to dry before peeling off the tape. You are then left with a nice spotty border on your card.

Like this

Next I stamped using the birds image from the Squiggly Ink: Flora and Fauna (Plate 6). 

I decided that I wanted to paper-piece this image and so stamped the image again onto a scrap of the Heavy Weight White Stamping Card. 

Both the image and the border were coloured with the same technique using Chocolate Pudding, Limelight and London Bus (these are translucent/semi opaque which means I didn’t need to add water so the card blank didn’t buckle). 

Then, with some coordinating pencil crayons I added some shading/dimension.

Here are the spots with paint

And with pencil depth detailing

So then it was time to cut out the image and shape it. Which was easy for the little birdies ...

and then came the tiny leaves…did I really want to cut all these out and paper piece them? NO DEFINITELY NOT…so that is where the LESSER bit came into my project! Instead I painted the leaves that were already stamped directly onto the card so I didn't have to cut them all out!

Finally I stamped my sentiment from the Flora and Fauna (Plate 6) set of Squiggly Ink stamps onto some Heavy Weight White Stamping Card and then cut it out into individual words. 

To finish my less is more card off I sketched a little frame around each word and stuck them onto my card using some thin foam pads.

Here's how it all looks pieced together

And a close-up

I can’t help chuckling as I notice that in the photo where I am sketching around the words the word ‘me’ is upside down…must have been some of that leftover Christmas spirit (or should I say spirits)...LOL! See you again next month, Clare.

Leandra Says: I do love this type of card, on the face of it strikingly simple, but when you break down the details, and note the little extra effects, like shaping the birds, it really adds depth that you easily miss on first glance. Thanks Clare, see you back in February!

Gillian Says: Clean & Simple but with high visual impact, love it Clare. Thank you for a brilliant first week :)

If you would like to join in this week's challenge and play along with Clare's techniques, then do link up your creativity to Sunday's post here, and go in the draw to win some PA stamps of your choice! You need to link your entry by 17:00, Sunday January 12th 2014.

A note to everyone from PAHQ: The annual January sale is on now, and Leandra has been crazily adding lots of stock to the online website; bellies and extra wooden items, memory box dies, Media Mixage, Ranger, Prima items and loads more. 

Spend over £50 and get 10% off
Spend over £100 and get 20% off
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This discount is triggered automatically as soon as the SUB TOTAL in your shopping basket exceeds the value listed above. Please note, the subtotal is the value of your basket BEFORE VAT and freight is applied.

The sale won't last long, so don't miss out, this only happens once a year