Same stamp set - a challenge

Hey everyone - back with a challenge I threw down to my friend, Heather. We both recently ordered a bunch of new Hero Arts supplies from their 2015 Christmas release - love, love, love!! This was all part of their new website makeover so if you haven't checked it out, please do so - it looks great! Many thanks to Hero Arts who is always so good to us former Hostesses!

Anyway, Heather and I both bought the new Color Layering Dimensional Bird (CL906), among many other things. We decided to use this one for our same stamp challenge. Here's my card:

I started by gold embossing the bird with ultra-thick gold embossing powder. I had done another bird using Ranger Princess Gold but it didn't stand out enough. The thing about doing the layers on the bird, though, is that the embossed outlines prevent some of the stamping along the edges. Not to worry, I just filled in with Distress Markers to match the Distress Inks used. Each time I did a layer, I clear embossed it. I did the birdie feet last and apparently some of the bird's lower body wasn't fully clear embossed - I got a bit of gold down there too, but decided it was ok. Couldn't do anything about it but start over which I wasn't about to do!!

I had intended this to be a one layer but after I finished my entire bird with all that embossing, I stamped the branch totally off for the bird to be sitting on it - ugh, hate when that happens! So I ended up fussy cutting the bird. The rest of the card is a one layer. I stamped the card base with Paint on Canvas Bold Print (CG672) using Scattered Straw Distress Ink for a tone-on-tone look. After stamping the branch, I decided I wanted a fall card so I added some leaves & a sentiment from the new clear set Autumn (CL882). I felt the card needed some shading so I went round the leaves with some Distress Markers and then colored some of the lines - just a random few. Oops, I see some ink blobs - guess my fingers had some Aged Mahogany on them. Added a few Hero Arts gems and a couple Doodlebug sprinkle shapes - done!

I had taken a photo of the card but wasn't really sure I like the gold embossing, given the direction the rest of the card. Then I remembered a sheet of gold leaves I bought from the dollar bin at Target! Tried a few before deciding on the two I stuck down. There, that tied in well with the gold embossed bird - whew!! I'm sure I'll have plenty more chances to use this beautiful bird set! I'm also quite sure that dear Heather has come up with something much better than this - can't wait to see it!!

Decided to enter this in Hero Arts current Makeover challenge too, as it's a remake of this birdie card.

Now for one last picture of Misty - in an earlier post, I mentioned putting all the crafty supplies away into the guest room because my brother's cat Misty is visiting. Well, I didn't close the door very well when I was grabbing some items to bring to the kitchen. She hastened to jump onto a card table I had used to pile all sorts of stuff - her little body is wedged next to a tote on which, moments earlier, she was chewing!! I distracted her by snapping my fingers so that's why she's looking up in the photo. Isn't she precious??!

Misty goes home later today after being here for almost two weeks. I will miss her; she has been quite the sweet guest. I won't miss having to watch where the crafty stuff lands - I'm used to keeping it out all over the place with no little animals coming to play with it! You should also have seen her bat a Starbucks cup stopper and a plastic bottle top (aka new Misty toys) all over the living room!!

Thanks for stopping by and if you happen to create something with the Color Layering Dimensional Bird set, I hope you'll share a link - would love to see it!!