Owl about a couple of challenges

As you've noticed, I enjoy challenges.  I've found that they push me into areas that I might not otherwise explore.  One of those areas is stamp carving.  You'll remember that Stampin' Up! introduced their Undefined Stamp Carving Kit last year.  I was excited about it and, almost immediately after getting my kit, carved a simple little cartoon cat and then put the kit away.  Of course I felt guilty about not using it but it was easy to keep putting it off.  Until now, that is.  A challenge came along.

You may think that the challenge was all about stamp carving and you'd be wrong.  The challenge was all about owls.  Well, I love owls.  The problem is that except for those adorable little owls in the Baby, We've Grown stamp set, I don't own any owl stamps.  I knew Fate was pushing at me when I found another challenge which is about "birds of a feather flock together".   So I decided to carve an owl stamp.  It took some work, but I'm proud of my efforts.

I chose Naturals White as my base cardstock and then a layer of Mossy Meadow.  My next layer is a piece of Shimmery White cardstock on which I had used the marbled alcohol marker technique.  I stamped the branch from the retired Take Care stamp set on Whisper White and fussy cut that out.   I glued the branch down using Tombo glue.   Then I stamped my owl twice on Whisper White and cut them out.  After colouring them, I adhered them onto the branch using Dimensionals.  For my sentiment I turned to the Yippee-Skippee stamp set and stamped it onto my Shimmery White paper using Memento black ink.

For more cards using the photo inspiration of owls, check out Inkspirational Challenges.

For more cards interpreting the words "birds of a feather flock together", check out TIME OUT Challenges.