Season's Tweetings

Christmas Card Throwdown's April challenge theme is "Musical Notation." I must admit, I kind of struggled with this. Finally, I decided to use Lawn Fawn's "Winter Sparrows" stamp set & coordinating dies to make a shaker card.

I began by using The Crafter's Workshop "Mini Aspen Trees" stencil to create my background on a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper. I used Stormy Sky Distress ink for the sky, creating an ombre effect. I also colored in the spots on the trees with a black felt-tip pen, before removing the stencil.

I stamped the birds from "Winter Sparrows" onto a scrap of watercolor paper with Hero Arts Charcoal ink, and colored them with my Tombow markers. I used the blending marker to add some highlighting. I also stamped the music note several times on watercolor paper, again with Charcoal ink. Finally, I used the coordinating dies to die cut the birds & notes.

For the frame, I used the largest of Lawn Fawn's "Large Stitched Rectangle" dies with one of the "Stitched Rectangles" dies from Simon Says Stamp. I nested the smaller die in the large die, and die cut the frame from Simon Says Stamp's Fog cardstock. I cut a piece of Crafter's Companion Heat Resistant Acetate just smaller than my frame, and stamped my greeting (also from "Winter Sparrows") in Versamark ink. Then I heat embossed it with Ranger Silver embossing powder. I adhered it behind my frame with Scor-Tape, and added a double-thickness of foam tape.

I glued my birds to the background panel. I decided that my Charcoal notes wouldn't show up well enough if I glued them to the panel as well, so I stamped more notes directly on the background around the birds with Hero Arts black ink. I also decided at this point to add a hill to ground my trees. So I cut a piece of Canson XL Mixed Media paper with a Lawn Fawn "Stitched Hillside Borders" die, and glued it to the bottom of my panel.

To assemble my card, I added sequins from Pretty Pink Posh & Darice. I brushed cornstarch around the inside edges of the foam tape, to remove the stickiness so my sequins wouldn't stick to it. I also glued several sequins to the background, just for added interest. Finally, I adhered my background panel to the frame. I glued my die cut music notes to the front of the acetate window, mounted the card front to a white A2 card base, and this card was done!

I'm also entering this card in the following challenges:

Pile It On #129: "Interactive Cards"
Merry Monday Christmas Challenge #243: "Make a Scene"
Lawn Fawnatics Challenge #2: "Interactive Cards"