Rosebreasted Grosbeak Christmas - Stampin' Up! Birds & Branches

   Stampin' Up! has release quite a few stamp sets in the past year or 2 that feature some adorable birds and I have to admit that I can't resist.  Just looking quickly at my current sets I have 6 that have at least one bird image.  Good thing birds work for all seasons!

  When I saw the CAS Christmas Card challenge to use birds there was no way I was passing that up! 

  Since it's a clean and simple challenge I kept my layers and embellishments to a minimum.  The card base is Sahara Sand and before adhering the top layer I tied a bit of Cherry Cobbler bakers twine around the card front.  I found it in my ribbon scrap bin and I think it was left from a tag kit or Paper Pumpkin kit.

  I cut a Stitched Rectangle out of Whisper White and then lightly sponged a rectangle in Pool Party using a homemade stencil.  The branch is stamped across the sponged rectangle in Sahara Sand and the leaves are added in Shaded Spruce.  In my continuing quest to use up the hundreds of retired candy dots I have I added a few to the branches as berries but the more I look at it I think they may look more like apples or cherries instead of winter berries!  Oh well.  

  The sentiment from Itty Bitty Christmas is stamped in Memento black and the bird and bird legs are also stamped in the same ink.  I colored the breast of the bird to look like a Rosebreasted Grosbeak or as close as my poor coloring skills could make it.  Maybe one day I'll see one at my bird feeder but for now this guy on the card will have to do!  Once he was colored I cut him out and popped him on the branch with dimensionals.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Birds & Branches, Itty Bitty Christmas

Ink: Pool Party, Sahara Sand, Shaded Spruce, Memento Black

Blends: Cherry Cobbler light & dark

Paper: Sahara Sand, Whisper White

Accessories: Stitched Rectangle dies, Birds & More dies, Cherry Cobbler baker's twine (retired), candy dots (retired), dimensionals