Little birds of happiness

Yesterday a friend of mine was frustrated by a few different things and was just having a "blech" kind of day. On the plus side, she was excited about the new cell-phone cover she'd bought, which had cute pink and orange birds all over it. (Sometimes it's the little things that make us smile, after all.) So today I decided to make her a little pick-me-up card inspired by her cell-phone cover.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!^® unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Cheep Talk, Warm Words, Pursuit of Happiness (inside card)
Card stock: Pool Party, Very Vanilla, Soft Suede
Ink: Soft Suede, Lucky Limeade, Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight
Accessories: Labels Collection Framelits dies, Polka Dots embossing folder (Cuttlebug), Word Window punch, Modern Label punch, Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack, pearls, paper piercer, Dimensionals, Tombow multi-purpose liquid glue

To create the multicolored stamped images, I colored directly on the rubber stamps with markers. Then I used the thin tips of the markers to add a little extra detail to the stamped leaves and birds. I freehand pierced the holes around the edge of the die-cut focal point. (Stampin' Up! will have a piercing template for these Framelits dies in the upcoming Holiday Catalog, but I had to make do with my own little eyeballs.)

I did struggle a bit with the bottom right corner. I knew it needed something, but I couldn't quite figure out what. I tried a ribbon and then a tag, but neither worked. So I looked through several stamp sets to find just the right word, punched it out and then matted it with another punched shape. I don't know that it's perfect, but the more I look at it, the more I like it.

For the inside of the card, I first stamped the greeting and then added one of the birds on each side of it. To mirror the front of the card, I used a slightly larger Framelits die from the Labels Collection to cut out the stamped images.

I'm pretty pleased with how this card turned out. I was happy making it, and I hope it spreads a little bit of happiness, too. Thanks for stopping by!