Welcome to the newest Make My Monday bi-weekly challenge #223. Our host for this challenge, Caz, chose National Picture of a Bird Day as the theme. When you finish here, please visit the challenge site to see what the rest of the very talented design team members created. Then, don’t forget to upload your creations to our gallery. We look forward to seeing your creations there!

Here’s my card:

I must confess that, since I live in the U.S., I’d never heard of this celebration day, but I went with it. The new Stampin’ UP! catalog goes live in just a few weeks, and I’m looking forward to sharing more of the inside of the catalog with you. Today’s layout comes from a set of 22 card sketches found on page 22 of the new catalog. Over the course of the next few months, I am going to post a card from each of these sketches. The one I used for this card can be found on page 22, albeit with a slight change. The original sketch calls for 10 strips of paper. I used 7 strips from the Nature’s Sweetness 12 x 12 inch DSP (designer series paper).

This Waves of Inspiration stamp set and coordinating Waves die set are being retired. If you want this gorgeous set, you will need to get it before the current catalog retires on April 30, 2024.

Measurements:

The Night of Navy base measures 8-1/2 by 5-1/2 inches, scored at 4-1/4 inches.
I trimmed 7 pieces of the DSP to 3/4 by 3-3/4 inches for the front.
Trim a piece of the DSP to 6 by 2-1/2 inches for the envelope flap.
Next, punch a 1-inch circle of coordinating DSP and run it through the XYRON create-a-sticker for the envelope seal.
Trim a piece of white cardstock to 4 by 5-1/4 inches for the inside of the card.

Stamping & Cropping:

On a piece of white cardstock, stamp the wave in Pebbled Path ink.
Crop the wave using one of the Countryside Corners dies.
On scrap pieces of white cardstock, stamp the pelican on the pier and the sentiment.
Crop the sentiment and pelican piece using dies from the Waves die set.
Crop three clouds and the white accent part of the wave from more scraps of white cardstock.
Finally, crop the birds from Pebbled Path cardstock.
Using a dry blending brush that was previously used with gray ink, lightly rub the white cloud pieces.
Color the pier pieces using the Pebbled Path blends.
I used the Ivory blend on the beak, but you really can’t see it.
using a Pebbled Path marker, outline the sentiment banner and the Countryside Corners piece.

Assembly:

Add dimensionals under the sentiment and the pelican piece.
Adhere everything else using multipurpose glue.
After deciding on the pattern for your DSP strips, adhere them to the base of the card.
Adhere the wave accent piece and trim to size.
Next, adhere the Countryside Corners die cut piece.
Randomly add the clouds and the birds to the die cut front.
Finally, adhere the sentiment and then the pelican piece to the front.
Stamp your sentiment for the inside using Pebbled Path ink.
Adhere the inside cardstock to the inside of the base of the card.
With that, I’d finished this coordinated card, envelope, and envelope seal set.