Flourish Birdcage

Today I headed to Opus (artist's supply store) in Langley with Jeremy.  He wanted to pick up acrylic paints and canvasses ... he's planning on painting a set of three geometric design panels for his new apartment.  I found a nice piece of thin balsa wood and used it in today's card.  I wasn't sure if it was too thick to cut with dies, but after running it through a few times, the Big Shot compressed the wood enough that it was able to cut all the way through.  Just love the look of the wood pieces on the card ... and the great thing about balsa, is that it is extremely lightweight - perfect for embellishing a card.

Today's card is for the Color Throwdown Challenge (CTD197 - Crumb Cake, Calypso Coral, Cajun Craze, Kiwi Kiss).  I just love the combination of these colors!  I used mostly dies for my card (and again I used my newest toy, the flourish die from Cheery Lynn - it is my favorite die I have!!).  I also used the birdcage die (and bird) that I've had for a while, but haven't used yet.  I still have several unopened dies ... need to get on that!!  Hope you like today's CAS card.

"Flourish Birdcage"

Stamp:  Vintage Labels (SU!)
Paper:  White cardstock (C.C. Designs); Basic Black, Kiwi Kiss, Cajun Craze, Everyday Enchantment DP (SU!)
Ink:  Basic Black, Crumb Cake, Kiwi Kiss (SU!)
Accessories & Tools:  Big Shot, Nestabilities Labels Two (Spellbinders), Fanciful Flourish die (Cheery Lynn); Birdcage and bird dies (Poppy Stamps), Hydrangea punch (Martha Stewart); balsa wood, mat, stylus, glue, and dimensionals

I ran the balsa wood through my Big Shot with the Nestabilities Labels Two and bird dies and then sponged both pieces with Crumb Cake ink.  I cut out the Flourish die from Kiwi Kiss cardstock and then sponged the edges with Kiwi Kiss ink.  I die-cut the birdcage from Basic Black cardstock.  The blossoms were punched from Cajun Craze cardstock and Calypso Coral DP from the Everyday Enchantment paper series and then molded using my mat and stylus.

I mounted all the pieces as shown, tacking down the flourish, birdcages and flowers with glue and popping up the bird to add depth.  The whole image was mounted on the cardbase and popped up for added dimension.