Sunday Stampers - Week 54 - Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep

Good Morning Stampers!

First of all, thank you to those of you who managed to join in last week, I saw some amazing artwork as usual.

It has been an eventful week for me :O)) The May issue of Craft Stamper magazine was on the stands this week and I am so chuffed because ... I designed the free cover stamp on the magazine for The Artistic Stamper!!! It is a little birdy with a swirl (called, amazingly enough, The Swirly Bird!!!! ) and I have used the stamp for one of my entries for this weeks challenge, which I bet you have guessed is....birds! There are a few pieces of artwork in the magazine using the Swirly Bird, some by Jennie, some from Katy the Editor and some from me too!!

As well as the cover stamp, I have also designed some more stamps that co-ordinate with the Swirly Bird and there is a special offer in the Craft Stamper for this set of stamps. If you click here, you will be taken to the page on The Artistic Stamper website where you can see the whole plate of stamps, which is A5 in size, and also make a purchase if you would like to take advantage of the offer :O))

For my main entry, I used the new stamps which include flowers, a vine and some little phrases that are actually made in my handwriting!! Eeee, I am soooo excited!! LOL I also used another set of stamps which are also brand new and available from The Artistic Stamper which are different types of Swirly Birds.





Card

I used Cosmo Cricket papers from the Love Notes range, stamping, paper piecing, decoupaging and adding shapes cut from my Nestabilities and then finishing off with a dash of Glossy Accents.




The flowers are two sizes, so I stamped and cut out three of each size and then made sure that I cut right to the middle circle in the design, so each petal was separate. I then used a bone folder and scored a line from the tip to the middle of each petal and then folded the petals up and inwards so they stand out more.





I layered the smaller flower inside the larger one, securing with Glossy Accents and then cut out the large leaf from the A5 plate and popped this behind the flower embellishment. For a finishing touch to the flowers, I used some pale pink pearls that I got in a bumper bag of old and broken jewellry, what a bargain that was and it is so worth keeping hold of stuff like that because it always comes in handy :O))




I used Dusty Concord Distress Ink and blended the cut edges of the papers and flowers to blend them in more and also swiped the Blending Tool around the edge of the card to make it co-ordinate.





ATC

For the ATC, I cut a piece of plain card and then used some fab glossy cardstock that I had faffed about with the other day when Linda came to play. She told me about this fab technique she had seen on Tim's Blog, using droplets of Alcohol Ink and a canister of air - well, I knew Grim had one of those cannister jobbies in his desk drawer so I "borrowed" it so Linda and I could play. If you pop over to Linda's Blog, she has showcased the gorgeous backgrounds she has made using this method, but she is even cleverer and has used a straw - which I think looks even better.




Anyway, enough waffle - the ATC was made using the free cover stamp. It is in two parts, the bird and then a separate swirl, so if you have the mag, please use some sharp scissors and snip the swirl away from the main image, then you have two stamps to play with.




I made a border using the background and popped this onto the ATC, stamped the bird onto the background and cut him out, fiddly but worth it, and then made a little word using a Dymo. Finally, I added a couple of Stitchels flowers, which I have also designed and are also available from The Artistic Stamper, and popped a little DewDrop in the middle.

I hope you like the theme this week - please remember to post a comment here when you have made your piece and leave a link to the place you are showing your stamped project, I can come and visit you then!

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Hels x