carpe diem!

So my imaginary friend Shannan had a contest going on...the object was to use stamps in a way for which they were not intended or designed. This was a bit of a stumper, but as I looked over my stamps Wednesday night, I thought..."hmmmm...this could work...." This is the set I started with - Damask Floral from Impression Obsession. Can you see the bird's head and wings in that long branch stamp?! So I stamped just the leaf part of that one, masked it to stamp the body (the leaf that's center right), and masked again to stamp in the tail (bottom right). Tropical bird!

The rest is watercolored - I pulled out the watercolor crayons again to do the blue background (I'm trying to get myself to use them more, 'cause DH said he'd buy me that big set for Christmas if I still want them then!) and used the Derwent WC pencils to fill in the bird. **Note - if you fill in an area like this that you want to gradate from a dark color to a light color or vice versa, start blending with the light color - otherwise you'll lose your light color, covering it with the dark color.

There are bunches of mini rhinestones on the bird itself. the crest on his head is a Prima flower folded in half...I played for a while with a craft feather, and decided I didn't like it, so...I used the Prima in a way I'm sure it was never intended! The paper is Frutti Fusion from TAC - not sure if it's still available anymore or not. The saying is from My Heart Stamps for You - thought the "bright" bit was appropriate...