It’s the weekend, the sun is shining and it’s due to warm up too. This morning there were 9 white-tailed deer vising the all-you-can-eat buffet that is my front lawn. Also more obvious now are the various birds that visit when our black cat Houdini is not in a playful mood. We even saw our first blue jay this year. These brightly coloured birds always make me smile when I see them, so blue was the colour I reached for when designing today’s project using the Sweet Songbirds Stamp Set.

SWEET SONGBIRDS STAMP SET

The blue I chose was, unsurprisingly, Starry Sky, one of the new 2022-2024 In Colors. It’s overtaken Night of Navy as my favourite blue, and was exactly what I wanted for my bird image.

The Sweet Songbirds Stamp Set is what is known as a “two-step stamp set”. This means that you build up an image using two or more separate stamp images. In fact the Sweet Songbirds Stamp Set can create two different sized birds, plus there’s lots of other pieces to create little scenes. However, only the larger of the two birds coordinates with the Songbird Builder Punch so that’s the one I needed to stamp today.

You can stamp first and then punch, but that can mean a lot of wasted card, or complicated techniques for stamping the pieces in exactly the right place. However the Sweet Songbirds Stamp Set is made from see-through photopolymer so I was able to try something different. I simply took a piece of Thick Basic White Card and the Songbird Builder Punch and punched all the pieces in one go.

Next I inked up the large bird body image with Starry Sky ink and stamped off onto some scrap paper. Then with a little of the ink removed I looked through the photopolymer and stamped it onto the white punched body piece. Finally I repeated the process to stamp the small wing image onto the tear-drop shaped punched piece.

By this point I had a better idea of my design and discarded the two remaining punched pieces (the beak and belly). Instead I punched another tear-drop shape from Thick Basic White Card and stamped that with Starry Sky ink. Then found a scrap of Mango Melody Card and punched out a new beak.

Assembling the bird was quick and easy using Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow). First I fixed one wing on top of the bird body before adding the second one peeking out from behind. Then I glued the Mango Melody beak over the white one created by the body image stamp.

To complete my bird I stamped the eyes above the beak with Starry Sky ink, and then stamped the eyelids. With that done I set the bird aside while I worked on the tag base.

SCENIC TAG

I began the tag by looking through my scraps of New Horizons 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper (DSP). All I needed was a piece 2-1/4″ x 4-1/4″ and I had several to choose from. Once I’d made my decision I cut it out using the largest of the flat-topped dies from the Tailor Made Tags Dies. Next, using the same die, I cut a piece of Basic White Card. Finally I glued the card and DSP back-to-back with liquid glue.

Now I needed a sentiment and for this I went back to the Sweet Songbirds Stamp Set. In the end I chose “A little bird told me…” and stamped it onto the DSP side of the tag using Starry Sky ink. With that in place I added my bird to the scene using Stampin’ Dimensionals.

As I thought about what to tie onto the tag I decided I needed to add a bit more colour. So I found a scrap of Basic White Card and stamped the bird body using the same stamping-off technique as before. This gave me some matching blue card that I could cut using the oval hole reinforcement die from the Tailor Made Dies set. Once cut I glued a hole reinforcement on each side of the tag.

Finally I cut some Starry Sky 1/8″ Metallic Woven Ribbon and folded it in half. After passing the loop through the hole, I threaded the cut ends through the loop and pulled gently to secure it in place. At last my Sweet Songbirds’ maiden project was complete.

This all-occasion gift tag turned out even better than I’d hoped. I have a feeling I’m going to have a lot of fun with this stamp set and punch. There’s already lots of ideas in my notebook and I look forward to sharing them with you in the coming weeks and months.

PRODUCT LIST

BUNDLE BONUS – I bought the Sweet Songbirds Stamp Set and Songbird Builder Punch using a single “bundle” item number. Ordering the Sweet Songbirds Bundle saved me 10% off the cost of buying the same two items separately. You’ll see I’ve included both options below so you can compare them if you wish.

UPDATE: Sadly the New Horizons DSP has now retired and is no longer available from Stampin’ Up!