Feathers for the Twofer Card Challenge

Hi there. Guess what? We're having a snow day! (pictures at the end of the post, and you can skip 'em if you don't wanna see 'em!)

There's a new challenge that launched this month, in case you've not heard about it yet. So here goes my attempt!

 

 

OK, folks I worked hard on this challenge! I have some feather dies, but golly, couldn't think of a way to use them in a design. I looked at Pinterest, I looked at the DT's entries, and I'd get an idea. Then I'd go back to look at what some of the other entries were, and dadgum it, someone else had the same idea. Now I admit I am a copier, but I didn't want to be real blatant about this! Remembered I had a Tim Holtz embossing folder that was a feather texture fade, so looked and looked through my dies & folders. Finally checked my spreadsheet listing my dies to be sure I wasn't dreaming about having this embossing folder and feather die. It was a Bigz Die so stored separately from the others! Found it, and away we go.

 

Had done a cling film piece in earlier play. Heat embossed a white dragonfly over  a blue glossy cardstock, which was not an astounding success. Hmmm....well, let's try diecutting with my NBUS TH set. Didn't look too bad & you can see one of the dragonfly images on the blue feather. The neat thing is the embossing folder will put in the feather details...if you hold your mouth just right, and get the feathers put in the proper position. This die cuts 2 feathers, by the way. Used some fun foam, cut 2 feathers I could use as stamps. Didn't end up using these foam stamps after all, as another idea came to mind, while creating the navy blue card.

 

Remembered seeing this card at Our Little Inspirations and (1) since my feather was blue, (2) will need a Valentine for DH, and (3)blue is his favorite color...the Valentine card was born.Thanks for the inspiration Carol!

 Valentine Feather: SU wood plank stamp, Memento Nautical Blue ink. ODBD layered heart dies, embossed with Liquid Platinum and a sparkle red for the heart. (discovered I don't really have a good red embossing powder!) Down goes the feather and ok, one for the Twofer!

For the blue card: The remaining feather was smooshed very well into a WOW embossing ink (I'm finding that WOW works better for some things than my old Versamark inkpad, even well inked). Used Ranger Detail powders in Gold and silver. Careful use of the heat gun as this started as a glossy cardstock, and wanted to avoid any meltdown. Then took the negative piece from cutting the feathers to use as a stencil. An old dirty versamark pad and a finger dauber to ink up very heavily through my stencil. Used the same silver and gold, just reversed the placement of the powders. In the photo the stenciled leaf's silver looks mottled. IRL it looks just the same as the feather on the left (which was only glued at the top stem, so it's nicely dimensioned). Guess this effect is caused by the lighting.

Tied a gold bow, embossed the sentiment. Blue card was a snippet, already had the trim on it, from an old project that was a UFO.  Linking up with January Twofer Card Challenge.

And now for the morning's snow pictures. Good thing the feeders got filled late yesterday evening. Our birds are going nuts! We did have some pretty cardinals, but I didn't manage to get a decent photo. The birds are all puffed up in their feathers with the cold air.

Same bird as before, just different pose

Shows how much snow piled on the porch rails

I know our little snow is nothing compared to what a lot of you are experiencing, but it's Big Deal in our neighborhood. I'm seeing some little people out with their parents, playing in this white stuff. It doesn't feel that cold outside, but other than DH's dental appointment, we will be staying inside. Actually his appointment was tomorrow, but the office called, asked if he could make it today. It's just across the street from where our community is, so he told the girl he thought he could. There's a steep hill going out of the subdivision, so if it's icy, that hill is the barrier to leaving home.

Ya'll have a good day, look in on the new Twofer Challenge, come again when you can, and have a great day! Hugs