Cards in Envy - For the Birds

Hello!  Today I’m excited to announce that I was recently invited to join the Design Team at the Cards in Envy challenge blog!  The main objective of Cards in Envy is “making cards that fit in envelopes” – in other words, creating A2 sized cards with no lumpy, bumpy embellishments, that can be mailed without additional postage.  Since this fits in so well with the cards I make for Operation Write Home, it was pretty much a no-brainer for me to accept the invitation!

So the challenge being introduced today is my first challenge as part of the CIE Design Team.  The challenges are presented on the first and third Mondays of each month, so there is plenty of time to join in!  This time, the challenge theme is “For the Birds”, which means the cards have to have at least one bird on them.

I’ve had this mailbox image stamped and colored and sitting on my desk for probably about a year.  Yes, really.  I’m fairly certain it started out as an idea for a card to fulfill some crafty challenge.  It was on a die-cut oval.  I figured since I haven’t used it in that form for so long, maybe I needed to do something else with it.  So I looked through the OWH Stars and Stamps sketches for a sketch I hadn’t yet used that had a space on it large enough to accommodate the mailbox.  I started with Sketch #1, and scored with Sketch #30.  I turned the sketch on its side.  I drew the sidewalk (no comments from the peanut gallery about my drawing skillz, please, LOL!) and used a light shade of blue to sponge in some sky.  The bird and envelope were stamped on scrap cardstock, colored, and fussy cut.  Then I fussy cut the mailbox from the oval background and attached it to its new background.  I added the envelope, and then I used dimensional adhesive to attach the bird.  Although it doesn’t really show in the photo, the red strip in the background is textured cardstock.  The sentiment is one that I think works really well for OWH cards.

So now it’s your turn!  Check out the Cards in Envy site for all the challenge details, and share your birdie creation(s) with us by Sunday, September 1.  We’d love to have you play along with us!

Supplies:
Stamps: You’ve Got Mail (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Brilliant Blue, Basic Black, Real Red Core’dinations (Stampin’ Up); Pure Luxury White (Gina K. Designs)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); Soft Sky (SU)
Other: markers (Copic); dimensionals (SU); sponge