Noel + A Peaceful Christmas Bird

This post was sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Simon!

HI friends! I am back with another project using a few of the beautiful new dies from Simon Says Stamp’s DieCember release! After creating projects with tons of color, I thought I’d shift gears a little and create a serene project with lots of greenery and muted colors. I thought that the lines on the new Snowbird die looked like leading from stained glass, so I decided to pair it with some vellum and greenery to create a little scene, almost like a stained glass ornament in a Christmas tree! Let’s get started with the details.

I began by die cutting the new Snowbird die from brown glitter cardstock. I then adhered it to some vellum using liquid adhesive and used my sharp scissors to cut around the edges, creating a solid background for my detailed glitter bird die cut. To embellish the little “branch” upon which my bird was nestled, I die cut the Pointy Pine Needle Sprigs dies from some Water Sprite mirror cardstock from Tonic, as well as the holly leaves and berries from the Two Stems & Berries die.

For the background, I ran a panel of white cardstock through my die cutting machine using the beautifully detailed Holly and Pine Embossing Folder. After I had created the embossed panel, I used Artichoke and Kale inks from Pawsitively Saturated Ink Trio # 21 with a blending brush to add lush green color to the background. I blended after embossing, rather than before, and that helped to enhance some of the embossed details so much more!

For the greeting, I had embossed the beautifuly sentiments from the Elegantly Modern Christmas hot foil plate set with Espresso Bean hot foil from Spellbinders, then used the Pinkfresh Studio Solid Hot Foil Plate to hot foil the negative space on the leftover foil, getting two sentiments from one piece of hot foil! I die cut the greeting with the coordinating die and nestled it amongst my bird and foliage arrangement. The final touch was to add a few Opal gems for a subtle hint of sparkle amongst the texture and shimmer!

Well, that’s all for my project today. I am mourning the fact that I only have 18 more days of industry-sanctioned crafty time ahead of me, though I will certainly keep going with my Songs of the Season series in the New Year to lessen the blow of putting away my holiday supplies. If you’re creating holiday cards, are you nearing the finish line? I have my photo cards in hand (which seems like cheating for a cardmaker), but I haven’t mailed them out yet. Not enough hours in the day, especially with sick kiddos and Christmas all happening simultaneously!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!