Spring Bird Cards by Jami Steiger

 

Good morning, watercolor friends. With everything in Ohio now in full bloom and beautifully vibrant, I've been delighted watching the birds in our backyard. They served as my inspiration for today's cards.  

For my first card, I used the 5261-WC Large Birdhouse Set. I started by coloring the birdhouse stamp with Tombow markers 565 and 969. I stamped off once. I used the stamp positioner to place the birds in the scene. I then painted the birds, trying to make them as realistic as possible. After the scene was painted, I added Dr. PH. Martin's Bleed Proof White to add white highlights. I used a sentiment from the 5797-Little Sentiment Set and die-cut a tag using paper from the 6082-Bible Journaling S1 Paper Pack.

Tombow markers: 969, 565, 177, 837, 025, 879, 856, 528, N65, and N35.

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For my second card, I used these supplies: 5130-On The Sparrow Set; 6045-Scalloped Circle Dies; and Tombow markers: 969, 565, 177, N35, N65, 977, 837, 025, and 879.

Birdhouses & Birdcages by Karen Day

Hello Ai Watercolour fans!

I pulled out a favourite set of mine for my first card, here is 5261 - WC Large Birdhouse Set:

I started by taping off a 1 1/2" stripe on my Bristol Smooth Cardstock, and I did some ink blending with Broken Glass and Mowed Lawn Distress Oxide inks.  I mostly avoided the area where I wanted the birdhouse to be - and then used my Misti to stamp it exactly where I wanted it, using N57. 

Next, I created my vine using a portion of the small vine from Foliage Set - 4051 and #177, stamping it repeatedly to make the vine wrap around the base.  I used my damp brush to soften the leaves, extending the colour to the background slightly,  then used the spiky flower from 5258 - WC Flower Set 4 to stamp my flowers using #606.  I painted the birdhouse with N57, and added #991 to the roof.  With N57, I used my stamp positioner to add the two birds from the Birdhouse Set to the sky, and painted them in with shades of #565.  Shadows were painted in the windows and on the undersides of the surfaces using #565.

I hand drew in a few blades of grass, and used the small branch from 4964 - WC Branches Set to finish off my scene.  The sentiment is from 5797 - Little Things Sentiment Set stamped in Versafine Onyx Black.

For my second card, I've used the 5367 - WC Birdcage Dies.  I've used them before, but as a mask, so the die shape was simply the 'negative' that was painted around.  But these dies are gorgeous when cut, so I wanted to use the larger one cut from metallic silver cardstock - and I really love the look.

I started by tracing the rough shape of my die onto my Canson XL Watercolour Paper, so that I would have an idea of how to create my flowers & foliage.  Using my stamp positioner, I added the trailing blooms from 5474 - Flower Set 5 in #725/177 and #676/177, as well as the two fuchsia stamps in the same colours.  I added the Daisy Bunch from 4052 - Flower Set 1 in #993 with #725 around the bottom, which gave a peachy-pink shade to them.  The circlet flowers from 4868 - WC Flower Set 2, and the Foxglove from 4052 were both stamped in #565, and then I filled in around them with the tiny leaves from 5009 - WC Mini Flower Set in #126.

After touching everything with a damp brush, I added a wash of #493 to the background.  I spattered a little silver metallic paint onto the edges, and wanted a little something more - so stamped and diecut two of the butterflies from 5561 - Birds and Bugs Set.  They were coloured up with coordinating Tombow colours, and adhered with their wings bent up.  I adhered my birdcage on top of my painting, used a decorative edge die to cut out my panel, and adhered it to my cardbase with 3D foam adhesive.