Free as a Bird Meets FMS413

Freshly Made Sketches 413

A friend asked me for a card for his mom, who is in a rehab center up in the Plains States. I tried to create a card using purple as one of the major colors since it’s her favorite. I also wanted to create a card with a light, springtime feel to it, because their weather is anything but springtime right now.

Here’s my card:

Here’s the FMS413 banner, which inspired the layout of my card:

I’ll admit, this sketch intrigued me, so I’ve been coming back to it for most of the week trying to figure out what I could do. The card must be clean with lots of white space around the center focal point. Today, it hit me ~ Free as a Bird.

I’ve seen so many cards on challenges and on Pinterest using a white on white base. The cards have always impressed me with their beautiful simplicity. I’ve tried it before, and always wind up going back to add texture through embossing on the background. Today, I pushed myself to leave it just white. I only added a Highland Heather outline to the popped up layer of Whisper White. This outline adds just a tiny bit of color, which added dimension. Just what I wanted.

For the Birds and the Flowers

The Free as a Bird bundle really saved me for this card. After stamping the birds, I cropped them using the Stitched Nested Label die set. My friend didn’t really want a “get well” card. I thought the “wishing you well” sentiment, from the retired Lasting Lily stamp set, would fit perfectly. Thankfully it did and doesn’t overpower the bird and flower stamp. I’ve used the Lasting Lily set twice within the past two weeks. Until two weeks ago, the stamp set had been unused.

I used Stamping Blends for all of the coloring. So Saffron blend combo and the light Soft Suede colors were used for the birds. I used a Soft Suede marker for the beaks.

After I used the Soft Suede blend combo for the branch, I decided I needed to do something to highlight the birds talons. Therefore, I using the bullet tip of a Basic Black Stampin’ Write marker to trace the talons. Now, the birds don’t look like they are standing on stumps.

Old Olive blends combo provided all the color I needed for the leaves. In order to follow the challenge sketch, I needed something on the top and bottom on the left. After playing around and dry-fitting, I decided on two fussy cut leave sets. I really had to play around with the leaves, and the fussy cut flowers, quite a bit. Finally, I settled on the finished design. The leaves provide the up and down movement I needed. The flowers added the items to cover the three stars in the challenge sketch.

Original Thoughts

Originally, I thought I would color the birds with the Purple Posy blend combo and use So Saffron on the flowers. I tried that on one bird, and didn’t like it at all. Therefore, I started over, restamped everything, recolored all the branches and leaves. Then, I colored the flowers using the Purple Posy blend combo. Ta-da! I wanted the purple to be a pop of color, and it worked. At least it worked in my humble opinion.

I added a piece of the Bird Ballad DSP to the envelope flap. I also stamped and colored a single flower on the front of the envelope, and this coordinated card set is complete.

Since I was done, I sent a picture of the card set to my friend, and he approved.

As always,

Thank you so very much for stopping by my blog today. I appreciate your the time you take to read, and comment, on my cards.

Have a Peachy Day!

Sue

Contemplating placing an order today? Of course you are, especially because the new Stamping Trimmer is now available! If you don’t already have a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator, I would be honored to work with you. Please contact me or visit my shop to order the supplies for this card.

If you are ordering $150 or more, please contact me first so you earn all the Stamping Rewards for your order.

If you are ordering less than $150, please use the host code, 49KJF94R when prompted. I use the combined rewards for gifts for customers.

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