Bird on a Branch

Today is the "Queen For the Day" Challenge at SCS (QFTD126 - ladybug91743) ... honor Marie-Alice by CASE'ing (copy and share everything) one of her lovely cards.  I have looked through her wonderful gallery and settled on this card.  I love the vintage feel from the colors and the bird cage.  Hope you like.

"Bird on a Branch"

 
Stamp:  En Francais (SU!)
Paper:  Soft Suede, River Rock, Old Olive (SU!)
Ink:  Soft Suede, Old Olive (SU!)
Accessories & Tools:  Big Shot, Fanciful Flourish die (Cheery Lynn); Vintage Bird Cage and Nested Bird dies (Poppy Stamps), sponges, adhesives, glue and dimensionals

I inked the En Francais background stamp, stamped it off once onto scrap paper and then stamped it onto River Rock cardstock.

I die-cut the flourish twice, once from Soft Suede cardstock and once from Old Olive cardstock.  I sponged the stems with Soft Suede ink to darken them slightly.  I sponged the green flourish (leaves only) with Old Olive ink to darken the base of each leaf.  I cut the leaves out and glued them on top of the Soft Suede flourish.

I die-cut the bird cage from black cardstock and the nested bird from Soft Suede (again, sponging the edges to give the bird some interest).

I mounted the branch, bird and cage onto my stamped card front, popping the cage up with dimensionals to add depth.  I mounted the card front onto a card base of Soft Suede cardstock.  The inside panel is River Rock and I added one branch with leaves to the bottom.

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Just thought I'd share a tip with you today.  Sometimes I have trouble getting a clean die-cut ... not sure if it's my cutting plates that need replacing, or maybe I've used the die so many times it is getting a bit worn ... or my Big Shot rollers are not as tight as they used to be.  I find ones that have thin pieces (like the stems on the flourish above), a particular challenge.  I find it helps to have an emery board handy.  I use it to smooth out the rough edges.  It only takes a few minutes, but makes a huge difference.