Pets - the April Twofer Challenge

One of my Mum's favourite pets was her budgerigar, Ringo.  Now you have to understand that Ringo was her favourite Beatle and she felt the bird's beak was on a par with Ringo's rather well-formed nose.  Mum had taught her Ringo a number of words and phrases, one of which was "hurry up".  Apparently my sister and I were told that so many times in the morning, getting ready for school, that the bird began  nagging us as well.

Imagine my delight when Stampin' Up! came out with the Bird Banter stamp set.  It included a pair of budgerigar stamps which I knew would be perfect for my cards.  I was over the moon with delight when I discovered that the Twofer Challenge decided on the theme "Pets" this month.  What a great reason to ink up this adorable bird!

I made two cards, of course.  The first could be used for friendship or a bit of "mush" for your sweetie.  I used only the images from the Bird Banter for this card and then coloured them using my Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol.

The second card is for someone who is under the weather with illness or is just having a rough time.  For this card I combined the images from Bird Banter and from the Weather Together bundle.  I cut the umbrella from a piece of scrap retired Designer Paper and propped  it up on Dimensionals.  The handle is cut from a scrap of dark brown cardstock and that centre rod is cut from silver foil.  I fussy cut the budgerigar (the feet almost killed me) and placed him on the rod, looking out at the weather.  I used my Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol to colour the bird but the wet ground is actually my Stampin' Blends with the drip swirls hand drawn using my white marker.

And here are the two together.

I hope you'll check out the awesome samples and entries at the Twofer Card Challenge Blog.  #twofercardchallenge

I'm also entering the second card in the Inkspirational Challenge #158 - Rain Photo

Watercooler Wednesday Challenge #152 - Kath's "All About Occasions" Challenge

It's time for that new "All About Occasions" Challenge we introduced before Christmas and this time it's hosted by Kath Ricks.  I love this challenge because there are so many occasions which we celebrate throughout the year.

I decided on a birthday card because that is, without a doubt, the occasion that comes up most frequently.  I had ordered the new Bird Banter stamp set before Christmas and last week, finally had a chance to play with it.  Those birds make me smile.  And the types of birds lend themselves to some awesome colouring.  For my card I turned to the new Stampin' Blends.  Didn't the parrot turn out wonderfully bright?  I love the shading that's possible with the Blends as well as the lovely brilliant colours.

The stamp set comes with the branch and additional leaf and flower stamps.  I decided to add quite a bit of foliage and some flowers to add to the birthday fun.  And the sentiments that come with the set--so much fun!

I hope you'll check out the wonderful creations by the other Watercooler Artists over at our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge blog.

I'm also entering this card in the Inkspirational Challenge #151 which is "all about stamping".

And I'm entering it into the Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge #274 which is "clean and simple"