Petit Oiseau and Buzzing Bee

Challenge #289 at Time Out Challenges has just gone live and this fortnight we want to see projects Inspired By Your Favourite Winged Thing!  

This challenge is generously being sponsored by Lawn Fawn and they are offering our Top Pick as chosen by the design teams a $25 credit to the store!  

 The Top Pick will also be invited to join Time Out as a guest designer in a future challenge!  Speaking of guest designers, our guest designer this fortnight is Kathy Asper of My Asperations our winner from Challenge #284!  Be sure to check out how Kathy was inspired by her favourite winged thing as well as my talented team mates over on the Time Out Blog!

When thinking about Winged Things, my brain immediately went to birds - I had a budgerigar many years ago (I may have mentioned my Billy Boy once or twice already on my blog LOL). He was a great pet - chattering away all day telling anybody who would listen "what a good little boy" he was.  He also loved to dance and he would come when called!  His cage door was mostly left open which was a problem on weekends because he rarely let me sleep in!   Billy Boy was blue and yellow so I made up a little bird (Poppy Stamps Nordic Bird Bunch) in blue and yellow and put him aside!  At this point my Mojo decided to go AWOL!

Eventually I remembered I had an old rubber stamp (from de Stempelwinkel) that I had bought at a craft market in 2018 but never got around to using - well I can't make out a lot of the text but I know enough French to recognise the word "Oiseaux"!   I had an idea was to create a circular aperture, have the text behind the aperture, surround the aperture with flowers and have the bird in the centre of the aperture nestled among the flowers!   After stamping the text, I realised it was too harsh (should have stamped off first) but managed to save it by softening it with a piece of vellum.  I cut some Nordic flowers (Poppy Stamps Nordic Flourishes and Nordic Flower Heads) from white and coloured them with various (pastel) alcohol markers.   Then I pulled down the bird I'd made and realised the colours were far too bright for my bird!  So I made up another bird this time cut from white and coloured with alcohol markers - fortunately, like most of Poppy Stamps' Nordic Collection, these birds are a doddle to make up!

I finished off the card with a simple "hugs" sentiment (Spellbinders Vivid Script Sentiments) and mounted it on a brown card base!  

***

Now a bird may be my favourite winged thing but this bee die which came with the Spellbinders Advent Calendar last year is a lot of fun to play with!  And since I have already have quite a few bee related resources I guess bees are probably my second favourite winged thing - at least when made from paper ... in real life I've been stung way too many times!  

I made up a few bees and played with other bee related stash and this Happy "Bee" Day card with a black frame (two rectangle dies), a pierced honeycomb panel and the addition of 3 flowers was my favourite (the little flower die came with the set)!  The wings were cut from yellow vellum and when assembled, I mounted him on one of those little action wobbler springs so he wiggles (even buzzes) a little!

I'm looking forward to reading about your favourite winged thing and seeing your creations in the Time Out Gallery!  Please remember we only allow links to 5 challenges combined - Time Out plus 4 others!   

I am grateful for and would like to enter the following fabulous challenges

Card 1 Only

The Paper Players Challenge PP738 - Things that Fly (CAS);

Triple B May 2025 Challenge - Birds and Blooms;

Card 2 Only

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Simon Says Bright and Cheerful (The Bee Card);

Both Cards

NBUS Challenge #74 - NBUS Bird, NBUS Nordic Flowers, NBUS Oiseaux Text Stamp, NBUS Bee;

Cut it Up Challenge #330 - Send Me Flowers;

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and should be able to find you!

Kate