DOILY BUTTERFLY

 How about a black and white card with just a couple touches of turquoise? Here you go!

SUPPLIES:

White cardstock

Black cardstock

Black and white patterned paper with butterflies

Turquoise doily

Big Shot

Deckled Circles dies

Butterfly die

Turquoise gem

DIRECTIONS:

Fold a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece of white cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

To this white card base, add a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of black and white patterned paper with butterflies on it.

About 1/4" from the top of the black and white paper, add a turquoise doily, raised a bit from center. The one I used on my card is about 4" in diameter.

From white cardstock, die cut a deckled circle that measures 2 3/4" across. From black cardstock, die cut another deckled circle that measures 2 3/8" across. Adhere these circles together.

From white cardstock, die cut a butterfly.

Adding adhesive onlyy to the body portion of the butterfly, add it to the black circle.

Add a turquoise gem to the butterfly's body.

If desired, gently tilt the wings iinto a flying position,

Adhere the completed circle to the center of the doily.

Winged

Smiles.

BIRDIE THANKS

A fun thing to do with patterned papers is to divide them up into tile-like sections. Doing this gives the viewer's eye a little something extra to work on. On this card, the cheery spring-like design was divided into three vertical strips. It makes the card a little more interesting to look at.

SUPPLIES:

Light Blue Cardstock

White Cardstock

Patterned Paper

Vellum

Big Shot

Tags dies

Thanks dies

Blue Baker's Twine

Mini Dimensionals

INSTRUCTIONS:

Fold a 4 1/4" x 11" piece of light blue cardstock (or any color to match your patterned paper) in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

Cut three strips of the patterned paper that measure 1 5/8" x 4".

Starting with the strip on the left, add it to the card base, leaving an even border at the top, bottom and left side. Repeat with the strip on the right. The center strip should fit nicely in the remaining space.

Use an appropriately sized tag die to cut a tag from vellum.

Using a two-part thanks die, cut the larger portion of the word from the light blue cardstock, and from white cardstock, cut the smaller portion of it.

Carefully adhere these two pieces together.

Add the completed word to the vellum tag.

Use a dark blue baker's twine (or one that coordinates with your card) to tie a bow through the hole in the tag.

Use Mini Dimensionals behind the letters to adhere the tag to the card.

Add a coordinating flower in the upper right corner of the card.

Birdie

Smiles.

THE DAILY BIRD January/February 2025

I have been trying for the past several weeks to recover from an injury to my right hand. I'd always said, "Take away my right hand or my eyes, and I'm finished." Well, my right hand hasn't been taken away completely; it is reovering. So, I guess I'm not finished yet. 

Because of this injury, I have only drawn a few birds. Only a few because, when I do draw one, I pay with a great deal of pain the next day. 

But, for now, I have a handful of bird drawings I did as part of my personal challenge, The Daily Bird, from January and February. 

Now, as I always do, above each bird drawing, I will note the name of the bird, as well as where in the world this bird can be found in the wild.

Here goes:

khalij pheasant

himalayan foothills, nepal, pakistan, western thailand

black-rumped flameback

indian subcontinent and sri lanka

graylag goose

europe

junglefowl

bangladesh, bhutan, cambodia, china, india, indonesia, lao people's democratic republic, malaysia, myanmar, nepal, pakistan, philippines, singapore, thailand, timor-jeste, vietnam

drongos

africa, south asia, australasia

barbary falcon

canary islands, parts of north africa, to the middle east

indian golden oriole

indian subcontinent and central asia

black kite

australasia, eurasia, africa

himalayan griffon

north and northeastern india, tibetan plateau

rufous treepie

indian subcontinent, southeast asia

white-naped crane

northeastern mongolia, northeastrn china, russia

wattled jacana

south america

tufted penguin

coast from central california to alaska

cape griffon

south africa

greater yellow-headed vulture

amazon basin of tropical south america

black-collared starling

southern china and most of mainland southeast asia

visayan hornbill

philippines

red knot

far north of canada, europe and russia

If you would like prints of any of my birds, please just let me know. Several of those in this post have already been made into prints, so I may already have one or more available. The prints are made from the actual drawings themselves. Those that  you see here are just quick photographs of the drawings.

Thanks for accompanying me on my birding journey.

Birdie

Smiles.

SPRINGTIME GREETINGS

The calendar tells us that spring has arrived, although the weather here in central Wisconsin says otherwise.

The cute bunny on this gatefold card sends you his greetings.

SUPPLIES:

White cardstock

Pale pink cardstock

Yellow cardstock

Bunny stamp 

Daffodil stamp

Sentiment stamp

Black ink

Yellow ink

Pink Stampin' Blend

Big Shot

Oval dies

Basket Weave embossing folder

Pink/White baker's twine

Dimensionals

Small glue dots

Pink pearls

INSTRUCTIONS:

Cut a piece of white cardstock measuring 5 1/2" x 8 1/2". With a scoring tool, score the paper at 2 1/8". Flip it completely around and score again at 2 1/8".You should have a perfect gatefold card.

Use a basket weave embossing folder to emboss two pieces of yellow cardstock that measure 1 7/8" x 5 1/4". Add these two embossed pieces to each of the gatefolds.

On white cardstock, stamp the bunny. Use an oval die to cut the bunny out. All around the stamped bunny, in yellow ink, stamp the daffodil tops, extending beyond the edges of the oval.

From light pink carstock, cut an embossed oval. Cut another oval that is about equal in size to the pink oval you just cut from white cardstock. Adhere this to the back of the pink oval. The reason I have you do this is that when you open the gatefold, the back of the oval that shows will look neat. It is not a perfect match, but do the best you can.

With Dimensionals, add the bunny oval to the center of the pink oval.

With a small piece of pink and white baker's twine, tie a small bow. Adhere it to the bunny's neck with a small glue dot.

Adding adhesive to only the left side of the bunny piece, attach it to the left side gatefold.

On white cardstock, stamp the greeting you have chosen. Die cut it with a label die.

Add pale pink pearls to the sentiment piece.

Adding adhesive only to the right side of the label, attach it to the right gatefold.

Spring-y

Smiles.

SENDING HUGS TOO

I dearly love a card that opens in another way than the traditional. This one, while opening sort of the original way, but not really, is a fun variation.

Read on for a tutorial so you can find out what's a little different in this catchy card.

SUPPLIES:

Burgundy cardstock

Creamy cardstock

Coordinating patterned paper

Burgundy ink

Sentiment of choice

Big Shot

Hexagon die

Decorative piece die

Gems

DIRECTIONS:

Fold a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece of burgundy cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder. Score the front half at  1 1/2" and fold that back against the rest of that flap. Glue it down to become part of the front of the card.

Cut two 1" x 5 1/4" strips of coordinating patterned paper.. Glue one of the strips to the inside flap of the card so the borders are the same at the right side, the top and the bottom. Glue the second strip to the flap that you just glued down, keeping the same margins.

You're almost there already!

Stamp in in a coordinating ink a sentiment. Die cut this with an appropriately sized die. I used cream cardstock because it coordinated with my patterned paper. 

Die cut a frilly decorative piece that fits well behind the sentiment label. Glue this to the back of the sentiment piece.

Add bling above and below the sentiment.

Use Dimensionals to add this to the left flap about an inch from the bottom of the card.

Fun

Smiles.