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1/17/2018

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




42 comments:

  1. Great use of the Feather die! Both designs are so creative. Thanks for your comment on my cards and for becoming a follower. Enjoy the snow.....if you want some more, we have plenty to share in Ohio.

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  2. Hi Mary, Fab cards.

    Hope your hubby made it to the dentist.

    Snow looks lovely, but not if it turns slippy. We have below freezing temps and a lot of the countryt has snow, but not here. Sue

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  3. Ooooh Mary....snow, I am so jealous, I would love just a little covering so that Bowie and Bumble can have a play, and me!! These are wonderful cards, I am so impressed how your ideas seem to flow Mary, I am hopeless unless I have a sketch to follow!! xx

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  4. Firstly Wow to all that snow! Hope husband made it safely to the dentist? What a great interpretation to the twofer challenge. Great techniques, which you know I always enjoy reading about. Interesting about the wow embossing ink. I get caught up with what I always use so I will give this a go...I do have it in my stash.....never used!! I too have a dirty versamark ink and a cleaner one to use for different things x Such a creative valentines card Mary, made with love and such a classy navy card.....Enjoyed reading your post (as always x).

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  5. Your feathers turned out good, Mary! Love the embossing and how you reversed it on the second feather! The dragonfly makes a great pattern on the blue feather! A fantastic Valentine, my friend! Stay warm and enjoy the view!

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  6. Beautiful cards, and thanks for sharing the snowy pictures, I missed those!

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  7. Your cards are both so beautiful, Mary!! You did a perfect job using the feathers!! I love the designs of both!! Ugh, we have snow like that, too. And temps in the negatives. I'm ready for spring!! Have a great day!! Big hugs :)

    Lisa
    A Mermaid's Crafts

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  8. Fabulous cards Mary, beautiful feathers and great designs.
    That looks like quite a lot of snow to me - we've had about 3 flakes so far this winter!
    Pauline - Crafting with Cotnob
    x

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  9. Hi Mary,
    2 wonderful twofers cards and such very brilliant designing and thinking.
    As usual your work is ecellent and such a lot of work to creaate.
    Oh my you have had snow today hope you are keeping warm.
    I love your wonderful bird feeders they look brilliant.
    Love and big crafty hugs from my house to yours. Jenny L.

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  10. I'm just thrilled to know I inspired you to make one of your cards for this challenge, and I know the Mr is going to love his blue Valentine too! Adding the feather to it makes it even more special! I love how Tim the man rescued you with one of his awesome products too! They're both awesome and you've just made my day! Thanks too for the shout out, and good luck with Darnell's challenge :) Stay warm down there in the snow - we got a couple inches over night as well :)

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  11. I like your twofer feather cards. Love that first one especially. The colours are great. Gosh that is some snow you have there. The Doc has to fill our feeders up at least twice a day as the birds seem to have the notion that our garden is the local soup kitchen!!. We do get such a lovely range of bird coming in though. Turning bitterly cold here and snow and sleet is forecast for the next few days. Hugs Mrs A.

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  12. Hi Mary, two super cards and a great use of the feathers, love the way you have done the card with the two tones agains the lovely blue background and a super second card is great for a male with the wood background.
    Love the photo's, a nice fall of snow, not too deep but deep enough to look pretty. We had a very small covering this morning and we could not believe it but my eldest Grandson's school was closed, he was happy but youngest Grandson was not as his was still open and can you believe this, he went to school in his short trousers, yes he is still in the Summer wear, apparently a bet on with a class mates as to who can keep them on the longest!

    Kath x

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  13. Both are super! Love the way you used the feather dies. WHY can't I think of something like this - or even something to do for the challenge! Love your cards and once again, I LOVE the snow too!
    Lynn

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  14. Love your take on the feather challenge Mary, also loved seeing the snow, makes me feel a lot cooler than I am here! Hope you are able to get out and about if you need to, Cathy x

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  15. Gorgeous cards and love the feathers-I hate checking out the other DT entries before you make your card -they always make me think I would have done that and then your mojo flies out the window!!!Absolutely freezing here we had snow during the night but it rained and then froze so day was like an ice rink!!!Still we are lucky compared to some places.
    Carol x

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  16. Quit the story Mary but your attempts payed off I like your cards they are very beautiful. Well done. Great snowy pics too. Hugs Veerle x

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  17. We have had some heavy hail that left the ground white for a bit, and some quite strong winds, and more of those to come I think, but no proper snow so far thank goodness, and long may it last...lol. I hope the snow doesn't stay too long Mary so take care until it does. Now on to the cards...beautiful both of them Mary, and love the Valentine heart with the red inner heart which stands out so nicely, and then the blue feather with the pretty dragonfly on it gives it a lovely pattern, and the blue wood planks look great stamped in the background. The two gold and silver ones look wonderful on the dark blue, and love the gold bow to hold them together and the borders down each side finish it perfectly. x

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  18. Wow! Wow! Wow! Mary, two amazing cards! I love the feathers, and their coloring. Your color choices are unexpected and gorgeous! I love both cards and am pinning to me bird-feather board. Hugs, de

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  19. I forgot to thank you for sharing the lovely snowfall in your neighborhood. I’m glad it’s there, though. We are supposed to be 24 tonight. Hoping that white stuff is not around much longer. xx

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  20. You aced the Twofer concept, Mary. Both are wonderful and they are so different in design. We had a ton of snow, too. But we stayed in all day. Hope it's better in the South tomorrow!

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  21. Hi Mary, was so lovely to have you visit, life gets busy and we neglect blogland a little... or I do!
    Love snow photos but very happy to admire from long range, much prefer to live where I do 😁. Good you take care of birds too.
    Wonder twofer entry going to be challenge to join in isn’t it? I had few hiccoughs too, as realised my second card wasn’t a twofer in Darnell’s criteria.
    Great to have dear hubby’s card madetoo, pray all went well at dentist too.
    Thanks for sharing your inspiration!
    Shaz in Oz.x

    {Calligraphy Cards - Shaz in Oz}

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  22. Your feather cards turned out wonderful! Thanks for sharing your snow pictures. We are really cold but no snow.

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  23. Love the twofer cards, your hubby will love the valentines card. I love the the blue stamped wood, awesome colour and the perfect red heart in the middle. Love the classic CAS design of the birthday card :)
    I hope the snow doesn't cause too much problem.

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  24. Such a detailed, romantic valentine card, Mary ... the delicate feather is so pretty against the heart! The two gold and silver embossed feathers are fabulous against the dark background ... so rich and luxurious! Thanks so much for playing along with us at Twofer! Hugs, Anita :)

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  25. What a great use of the feathers Mary - and two totally different cards. Welldone
    Blessings
    Maxine
    You can keep the snow - the rain is bad enough here, but the temperatures are still high

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  26. Such BEAUTIFUL cards Mary, but I did chuckle when you said "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." I could imagine you changing the shape of your mouth trying to get it all correct LOL - silly me!

    We haven't any snow here, it stops getting here over the sea from Ireland, but Scotland is pretty bad. Hope you keep warm and safe.
    Faith
    x

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  27. Oh Mary, your snow is so beautiful. I think your neighborhood is so pretty and the snow makes it look like a winter wonderland. It's not something we want but got to make the best of it! I love your feather cards. They are both so different but very clever. I'm glad you were able to sort it out. They came out great.

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  28. Sorry about your snow...Even here in this part of Wisconsin, we don't have much more than you do, though it's rather cold and windy today. I'm so glad you found this feather die because the cards you've created are just wonderful. The Valentine is a perfect masculine card, and I do love that rich, deep blue background of your birthday card. Thank you so much for joining us at the Twofer Challenge. Hope to see you in the gallery next month! Bev

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  29. Two wonderful cards made with the feather. I really love both of them and love that they worked into such masculine looking designs. Adding the wood background in blue was a great choice. And, the embossing on the other feathered card really makes for an elegant look. I hope your hubby had no trouble with the icy hill either. Most people here have 4-wheel drive so usually it isn't too bad driving in snowy situations. Hubby has his vehicle and I have mine. But I seldom go much anywhere without him now.

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  30. Hi Mary, two beautiful cards, love the feather die and your designs.
    We have lots of snow too, the length of Scotland,but the Borders are really bad. Your photos are lovely thanks for sharing them, Kate x

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  31. Both your cards are just beautiful, Mary! Love how you made two completely different cards with the same theme, something I know I'd struggle with. Sure hope your snow melts quickly! Not fun driving in it, that's for sure.

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  32. Hi Mary

    So lovely to catch up with you again.

    Thank you for calling by my blog.

    I have been having a great look around you blog .. .. so lovely to see you are still keeping nice and busy.

    Great Twofer cards. I have got my choice of stamp out but got no further forward in actually finding time to making my cards! It is a great idea for a challenge isn't it.

    Lovely snow pictures too. I love to see snow that hasn't been disturbed!

    How nice to get cardinals on your bird feeders. The most colourful thing we get is a robin .. .. but he is a bit lazy and waits for the others to drop the food and he (or she) picks it up LOL!!

    I hope you are keeping well and had a good Christmas. All the very best for 2018.

    Love Jules xx

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  33. Your cards are beautiful Mary! I go to Pinterest often for inspiration.
    It snowed ALL DAY here yesterday. I made a big ole' bowl of snow ice cream and put it in the freezer. Sunny today and the snow is slowly melting. I think m hubby said it will be in the 60's this weekend or net week.
    Pam
    scrap-n-sewgranny.blogspot.com

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  34. two fabulous cards Mary, love your feathers..
    You sure have snow over there, we had a covering the other day, suppose we are lucky as most around us get it really bad.
    Hugs Pam x

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  35. Two beautiful feather cards Mary!! What a sweet Valentine's Day card for Joe ... he will LOVE it. The woodgrain background with the pretty die-cut heart and heat embossed feather all work so well together. Your second card is so elegant. Navy blue with silver and gold .. you gotta love that colour combo. Thanks for playing along with us at Twofer Card Challenge. xx

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  36. What a great pair of cards. I really like how you used the negative of the feather as a stencil on the navy card. At first, I thought they were both die cuts. And the Valentine's for you hubby is lovely. I never would have thought to use blue for a Valentine with just a hint of red. Your snow pictures are fabulous.

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  37. Lovely feathery cards Mary. So envious of your snow, we just have rain and wind, a lot of it!!

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  38. Your cards are wonderful, Mary! The blue valentine is so romantic and I'm sure your DH will love it! And the navy birthday card with the metallic feathers looks very elegant!
    Thank you so much for joining us at the very first Twofer Card Challenge!

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  39. Pretty cards!! So glad we did not get all that snow. We had a lot of frozen ice though. I can't remember the last time we had a hard freeze for days like this. I am so ready for my warm days. Spring can't get here fast enough for me.

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  40. I'm so happy to see you in the gallery, Mary! Your two cards are sensational! I can see all the amazing details and it was interesting to read the process you went through to make these two unique designs! Joe will love his Valentine! And the birthday card with positive and negative feather in gold and silver is so cool!

    Thank you for sharing your snow photos. I know that it is a Big Deal where you live and the kiddies must love it!! Thank you so much for your support, my friend, and for playing in my first Twofer challenge!! Hugs, Darnell

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  41. Super designs! A valentine card fit for a grown up of any gender and your other card has a color combo I really love, those are the colors I picked for our office/guest room when we refurbished last autumn. Great job, lots of searching and planning paid off:)

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  42. What a great use of the feathers Momma Mary! Both card are amazing and I love how you used your feathers. I find it hard to come up with ideas using feathers. Plus I don't have the greatest feather die/stamp set. Love yours and love your ideas. That Carol does come up with fabulous cards and I love that you used a heart on your one twofer card. Well done I say!!! Wow, you guys got way more snow than we did. I can't believe all the snow and ice the south is getting! We've just had the extreme cold with a dusting of snow and that doesn't hurt my feelings one bit! lol Now Bret has gotten way more snow up where he is at. Guess I will stick in my little are. lol Hugs, Brenda

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