Mojo Monday Challenge #385

It's been a very long time since I did a Mojo Monday (check out their blog here,--I am entry # 54) but I do enjoy the sketches and seeing the myriad variations that people come up with.


Here is this week's sketch.  The challenge is simply to make a card that resembles this.  You can turn or flip the sketch, change proportions, add or subtract, substitute a butterfly for that flower thing, etc.

I had quite a lot of fun with this card.  I had been wanting to use the birdie from my new "A Happy Thing" stamp set (a fabulous Sale-a-Bration gift, free with your purchase of $50.)

Here is my take on it: 

There were quite a lot of steps in making this card, but none were difficult, and all were fun.


The card base was Bermuda Bay, to bring out the Coastal Cabana Blendabilities marker I used in the bird (along with Cherry Cobbler, two shades of Daffodil Delight, Basic Black, Basic Gray, and Nude.)

I cut a piece of Baked Brown Sugar card stock for the background layer, and then decided it needed some texture. I went through all of my embossing folders in my mind, and chose this fun method for texturing instead: 

Step one, crunch thoroughly,
Step two, crunch some more,
Step three, fray one corner and carefully peel apart the layers.

This last step really is optional; I did it to reduce the bulk of the paper.  When you peel, you will reveal a very velvety texture on the inside of the paper.  I used the outside, and to highlight the wrinkles, I sponged VERY lightly with Chocolate Chip Ink. 

BY the way, it is impossible to put snail tape on the back of split card stock, so when taping this down, put your snail tape on the Burmuda Bay card base, (leaving a little margin around the edge!) and press the Baked Brown Sugar on top of that.



















To do the ring upon which birdie is perched, use your 2" and 2 1/2 inch circle punches on Baked Brown card stock.  It is easiest if you punch the smaller circle first (discard the center,) and then make the larger circle around it.

I sponged the ring with Chocolate Chip, Blackberry Bliss and Pear Pizzazz to give it almost a metallic texture.

To get birdie onto his perch, after fussy cutting the whole figure, I just notched around his little feet. 

I chose the 1 1/4" Burlap Ribbon for my diagonal stripe.  To give it a little more interest, I sponged it with the Blackberry Bliss Ink.  It colored quite nicely.

Because the ribbon is rather bulky, I decided to pop up the other papers with dimensionals, using snail tape where they intersected the ribbon.

In order to pop up DSPs, which are thinner, it is best to layer them onto card stock.  With a flash of insight, I decided to use that delicious Blackberry Bliss for this purpose.









The leafy stripe is from Painted Blooms DSP.
However, I found the effect to be too busy for my little bird, so I sponged over the paper with Pear Pizzazz Ink.  Here is the before and after:

After sponging, I layered the DSP over Blackberry Bliss card stock, leaving an inch or more margin on one side.  I laid the bird perch down, and traced the outside of the circle with a pencil. Then, leaving a border above and below the circle, I cut it out, cutting slightly inside the pencil lines.

Here is the final result--------------------------------------------------------------->
(By the way, when I finally put it all together, I snail taped the perch and the bird's tail, but popped up the upper part of the bird with dimensionals.)

The yellow DSP is Birthday Bash DSP. This is a super fun paper set with two sparkly foil designs amongst the sheets. I originally wanted a square about 3 5/8" on a side, but when I layered it with the Blackberry Bliss, I found it a little too wide. This is a very easy mistake to fix. Because there is another layer completely hiding the square top to bottom, you can just slice it down the middle, and either widen or contract the square. The seam will be hidden by the top layer.   

The "Love Life" sentiment is part of the "A Happy Thing" set, and was stamped with Blackberry Bliss on Very Vanilla card stock, cut out and taped down with snail tape.