Hello creative and crafty friends! This is ReNae and I’m here to share a card with you today!
I’m going to show you how just by changing just a few embellishments, you can change the entire look and feel of a card. But before we get started, let me tell you a little bit about the brand new and amazing “Bird Watcher“ collection.
The Bird Watcher Paper Collection
Graphic 45 is known for their beautiful papers, and this new collection called “Bird Watcher” is no exception! The bright colors and detailed images of these tiny winged creatures and gorgeous florals are a card makers dream!
“Bird Watcher“ features a 12” x 12” Collection pack with 8 double sided patterned papers, (with stickers included), an 8” x 8” Paper pad, Chipboard Embellishments, Journaling and Ephemera cards, Diecuts, and a coordinating “Patterns and Solids” paper pad. Additionally, many of their collections coordinate with each other which gives a Cardmaker many options when designing a card.
The “Bird Watcher” collection coordinates with another paper collection called “Ephemera Queen“ for example, so their papers are interchangeable! This makes creating a project more interesting! There are so many fun and interesting ways to create when you can use more than one collection!
The Card Base
I cut apart all the different images on the three patterned paper sheets containing images which were “Look up”, “Learn to fly” and “Bird Watcher”. Once I decided on the focal image I wanted to use for my first card, I then selected the other papers and constructed a card base as follows:
The 5” x 6 1/2” card base was made with blue patterned paper as the first panel, the yellow patterned paper was the next panel and then a strip of the blue and white striped paper called “Flock together” was used as a tag on the left side. I then selected a tag from the “Diecuts” pack that had a floral image which coordinated nicely with the focal image. I embossed the yellow panel using an embossing folder from my stash. Both the yellow and blue patterned paper were from the “Ephemera Queen” Patterns and Solids paper pack and coordinate beautifully with the “Bird Watcher“ images!
After the card base was finished, had a general idea of what I wanted to create for my Bird Watcher card. Now it was time to select the embellishments.
Bird Watcher Embellishments
I first took the Bird Watcher “Chipboard” pack and selected a few of the sentiments that I thought would look nice on the card. I did the same with the “Diecuts” pack, selecting various options that I thought would look prally I went to my stash and from there I selected several different packages of flowers. Some were from Prima, some from other manufacturers. (I’ve built up quite an arsenal over the years)! I also found various sizes and colors of doilies which coordinated with the paper. Then I just started trying different combinations to see what looked good. I tried lots and lots of combinations and it all looked really pretty!
Now I had to decide. Did I want it to be a birthday card? A Thinking of you card? Did I want a Sympathy card? Did I want it to look whimsical or more subdued? What kind of card did I want it to be? The decisions I made from here on would decide the look and feel of my Bird Watcher card!
Decisions, Decisions!
In the photos you can see the many different configurations I came up with. First I used three flowers, then four flowers, then different shades and colors of the flowers which really made a big difference in the way the card looked and felt. It was fun trying different sentiments and stickers and they too made the card feel different with each change. There was even a little ladybug in my stash that I could use! I found that Bird Watcher paper was indeed very versatile!
After lots of experimenting, I chose a bright, uplifting and cheerful card to send to my friend and fellow designer Kristine, who was recently awarded the title of Brand Ambassador for Graphic 45! I hope she likes it! It’s bright and cheerful just like her!
More Bird Watcher
I will be creating more cards and projects this month using the Graphic 45 “Bird Watcher“ paper collection so be sure to check back soon! The supplies I used to make this card are linked to our website.
I hope you’ve been inspired! I do hope you’ll give “Bird Watcher” a try... making lots of cards and using lots of different embellishments (of course)!
Happy Creating!
ReNae
