Nordic Birds on a Branch

Happy Monday everyone! Yesterday I had a little early birthday celebration with my brother and sister-in-law who brought me some lasagna and red velvet cupcakes - yum! They went home to watch the Super Bowl & I stayed at my house. Could've gone to a watch party but I like to work on crafts during breaks in the action. Had to stay by the television for the commerials though! My fave was the Dunkin' Donuts one! And that halftime show with Usher - what a talent!! Topping it off - overtime win for Kansas City - fantastic!! I could go on & on but let's get to my card for today:

Supplies: Paper - Park Lane A2 card; 

Authentique Colorful Christmas 6x6"; 

BoBunny Botanical Journal 6x8"; 

scraps of red, green, pink & black;

Dies - Poppystamps Nordic Bird Bunch;

Elizabeth Craft Designs Pine Cones;

A Jillian Vance Design Stitched Dot Rectangle Backdrop

Press Plate & Die - Spellbinders Merry & Bright Sentiment Strips

Other - foam tape

I was thinking of what to do for the current Christmas Kickstart Challenge "Out on a Limb". Given it's the second Monday of the month, Darnell (djkardkreations) is doing Dies for her IDEAS plan. I thought I'd join her & pulled out a new bird die set from Poppystamps. I also got a pine branch die from Elizabeth Craft Designs in the mail last Thursday - so two newbies for the February NBUS Challenge. 

Aren't the birdies the cutest??! I cut them from both red and pink cardstock so I could alternate the colors & get two pairs. I put one from each pair on the card. Die cut the branch from a scrap of green & the rectangle from a soft green. Both the birds and the other papers matched well with a colorful piney piece I found in a 6x6" Authentique pad. I cut the pine paper to A2 size and added to a card base. Matted the stitched rectangle with black and glued to the card, then added the pine branch and birdies. A Betterpress sentiment finished it off.

Since I was at it, I made a second card using the other birdie pair. This time I used a piece of piney paper from Lawn Fawn's Peace Joy Love 6x6" pad, cut to leave a frame of the card base. The matted rectangle was cut from a soft blue pattern from BoBunny's Boulevard 6x6" pad. Also used a different sentiment strip from the same Betterpress set. Which card do you prefer?

I took the photos with my new light box. I had tried it in January and wasn't satisfied but I played around with it. The photos I took without it weren't getting the colors right so this worked better, thankfully! 

That's it for today, friends - thanks for stopping! Have a crafty day!!