TGIF and Splitcoatstampers Challenges

Woo-hoo!  I got to stamp this past weekend!  After being on Hilton Head Island for a week, then jumping right into our church's kids' Bible camp, it had been a few weeks since I'd created anything.  Sometimes that break is a good thing, though, because I find the ideas come easily after returning from one.

I made this for TGIF's #tgifc220 and Splitcoaststamper's CC747 challenges.  TGIF's is a sketch challenge and Splitcoaststamper's is a color challenge, so combining the two allowed me to focus on the elements of my card.  I had to substitute the retired Primrose Petals for Rococo Rose since I did not have any of the latter, but it worked!

As I was coloring the images from the Free As A Bird stamp set, my mind wandered to time spent at my parents' camp in the Allegheny National Forest near Tionesta, PA.  They have a big front porch with rocking chairs and, when my three girls were small, we'd sit there with my mother as she played bird calls on this little machine she had.  The machine came with cards that had calls from loads of bird species recorded on them.  Whichever bird the girls wanted to call, my mom would put the proper card in the machine and the girls spent so many hours having fun trying to lure real birds to call back.  My mom also had a hummingbird feeder on the porch and it was constantly seeing activity.  The girls loved seeing how long they could sit quietly so as to attract more hummingbirds to the feeder - sometimes there were so many they'd "flit" each other away so as to get a drink!  My daughters' sweet excitement and joy in God's creation is such a beautiful memory.

I encourage you to play along in challenges like these two if you find yourself short on stamping time or in a creative rut.  They really are fun, plus you get to see others' takes on the same challenge.  

Here's the Card Recipe so you can make this, too: 

• Free As A Bird stamp set
• Stitched Nested Labels Dies(used to die-cut strip under sentiment)
• Free As A Bird Bundle (stamp set and dies together to save 10%)
• Primrose Petals cardstock (5-1/2 x 8-1/2 card base, 5-1/4 x 3-3/4)
• Soft Sea Foam cardstock (scraps to stamp images and die-cut strip)
• Very Vanilla cardstock (scrap for sentiment)
• Shimmer Detailed Laser Cut DSP
• Memento Tuxedo Black Ink Pad
• Soft Suede Ink Pad (to stamp sentiment)
• Whisper White Craft Ink Pad (swiped onto Primrose Petals layer)
• Rococo Rose Scalloped Linen Ribbon
• Light & Dark Soft Sea Foam Stampin' Blends
• Light & Dark Pink Pirouette Stampin' Blends (retired)
• Light & Dark Crumb Cake Stampin' Blends
• Light & Dark Balmy Blue Stampin' Blends
• Dark Poppy Parade Stampin' Blends
• Paper Snips for fussy cutting images

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