Carpe Diem by Linda Ledbetter

Hi there! This is Linda from Studio L3, back for my second Guest Designer project using some of my very favorite Artistic Stamper images. I'm so grateful to be featured this month, and I'm having an absolute blast with these wonderful stamps!

This happy little card began with Hels Sheridan's ADORABLE Swirly Bird #3 stamp (isn't he the sweetest?!), which I stamped twice onto Ranger's Specialty Stamping Paper. I colored both copies with Distress Markers in Tumbled Glass and Broken China and blended the colors with a Water Brush. Once dry, I cut out the entire bird from one copy, and just his little wing from the other. I embellished them with Stickles (True Blue, Tropical Tangerine and Red), the set the pieces aside to dry while I worked on the background. 

I used watercolor paper for the background, and started with a base of Dylusions Ink Spray in Bubblegum Pink, Lemon Zest and Squeezed Orange, spritzing them onto damped paper so the colors blended. Then I used a portion of Dyan's Dotted Flowers 9 x 12" stencil and sprayed with Cherry Pie Ink, then quickly blotted the paper with a baby wipe to lighten the color a bit. Once the paper dried, I randomly stamped the little diamonds from the Borders A5#1 set using Seedless Preserves Distress Ink.

The side borders (from the same Borders A5 #1 set) and the "Carpe Diem" (from the Journaling Words set) were stamped using a Pitch Black Adirondack Paint Dabber, then over-stamped with Snow Cap Adirondack Paint. 

I assembled the card by layering the bird onto the card-- and his wing onto his body-- using foam tape. I added a feather I found in my garden, and the "go get it" from Tim Holtz's Chitchat Stickers. I stamped and cut out one little pennant from the Borders set and drew a heart on it with Red Stickles, then attached it to the card with foam tape and a bit of twine. To finish, I added more Stickles and mounted the card onto a piece of white watercolor paper, then colored the edges with Ripe Persimmon Distress Marker. 

I had so much fun making this!

Thanks again to Jennie, Emma and the Artistic Stamper Team for welcoming me, and to YOU for visiting today. I'll be back later in August for one more project. Until then... carpe diem!