One of the things I love about my little piece of Nova Scotia is that I’m surrounded by nature. No matter what the season there’s always something going on in the garden. The other day we were treated to the sight of two baby raccoons exploring a rough area of our land. While we certainly don’t want them setting up home in any of our buildings they’re free to wander through. Birds are a lot less trouble, but providing birdhouses and feeders is still not a good idea. Our dear cat Houdini would find it altogether too tempting . So we satisfy ourselves with glimpses of our garden visitors as and when they happen, and the birdhouses stay strictly in my craft studio.

BASIC WHITE BASE

Garden Birdhouses is a new stamp set in the Stampin’ Up! 2021/2022 Annual Catalogue. I wasn’t sure about this one but in the end decided it might make a nice change from flowers and butterflies. Then when I finally got my hands on the stamps I surprised myself by immediately making three different projects. Who knew birdhouses would be so inspiring!

For my first project I wanted to keep things fairly simple. I began by using my Paper Trimmer to cut and score a piece of Thick Basic White Card. Then I folded it along the scored line and sharpened the crease with a Bone Folder to create a card base.

Next I cut two pieces of Basic White Card, one 4″ x 5-1/4 ” and the other 2-3/8″ x 2-7/8″. I also cut a 2-1/2″ x 3″ piece of Soft Succulent Card to use later.

Now I was ready for the Garden Birdhouses Stamp Set, starting with the large branch image. Using Soft Succulent ink I stamped the branch on both Basic White pieces coming in from the top left corner. Next I stamped the branch in the top left corner on the front of a Basic White Medium Envelope. Then using Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) I fixed the larger of the two white pieces inside my card base.

GARDEN BIRDHOUSES

With the basics done I was ready for the focal part of the card, starting with the remaining small Basic White piece. I’d already stamped the branch, so using Basic Gray ink I added the small hanger image over towards the left end. With that done I used liquid glue to mount the stamped piece onto the Soft Succulent layer.

In the Garden Birdhouses stamp set there are three different houses. For this card I chose the tall narrow one and stamped it onto a scrap of Thick Basic White Card using Basic Gray ink.

My original plan was to have light coloured sides and I coloured them using light and dark Pale Papaya Stampin’ Blends alcohol markers. Then I coloured the roof using light and dark Poppy Parade Stampin’ Blends. Unfortunately the walls of the birdhouse didn’t excite me at all so I decided to colour over them with light and dark Crumb Cake.

Now I was happier I cut out the birdhouse and fixed it to the Basic White layer with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

DECORATIVE FINISH

Turning to the card base I began to play with the assembled layer, trying to work out exactly where it should go. In the end I decided towards the top would be good. That meant I could stamp “Birthday wishes” in the bottom right corner using Soft Succulent ink.

While I wanted this to be a fairly clean and uncluttered card I felt that the birdhouse panel needed to be ‘grounded’. So before attaching it to the card base I needed one last piece.

From the Encircled in Beauty Dies I chose a die that was about 3″ across. Next I used it to cut some Soft Succulent vellum from the 2021/2023 In Color Shimmer Vellum pack. Then I attached the vellum to the left side of the card base with a little Tear & Tape Adhesive behind the solid centre.

With the vellum in place I added the birdhouse layer over the top using Stampin’ Dimensionals and my project was complete.

I’m really pleased with how this card turned out. Its simple colour scheme and subject matter makes this suitable for any gender. What do you think?

PRODUCT LIST

BUNDLE BONUS – I bought the Encircled In Beauty Dies in a bundle with the Encircled in Friendship Stamp Set (not used today). Buying the two items using the single item number meant I saved 10% off the cost of buying the two items separately. I’ve included a link to the bundle in case you want to look at this option.