The Cardinal in Spring

I made this card for Heartfelt Creations this week and the instructions are on their blog. 

I'm quite tickled with the wintery look of this card without it looking like a Christmas card.  I used traditional Christmas colours, but I think the softness of this shade of green gives it an almost spring feel.  Where I live, spring is the snowiest season of all!  I love the realistic look Art Institute Vintage glass glitter gives snow.  It looks like a field of little sparkling diamonds just like real newly fallen snow.

The easiest way to get a uniform look with all the dies is the following;

Using the largest labels 17 die and the smaller oval die, cut white and green card stock shape at the same time to achieve a perfect match.  Remove card stock from dies and set aside white oval for image.  Place large oval die on the white card stock shape using the small oval cut line to perfectly line up the die and cut again.

I love the spellbinders made dies that Heartfelt Creations has that coordinate with their stamp sets.  I makes doing dimensional cards like this little cardinal a snap!!!  It took a fraction of the time to cut the cardinal out using the die than it would have taken doing it by hand - DIVINE!!!

I used this little pile of copic markers to colour this image;

G12, G82, G85, G00, G000, G0000

R32, R35, R37, R39

E25, E29, E34, E35

stamps; snowy cardinal (heartfelt creations)
paper; coconut swirl, green tea (bazzill)
ink; black soot distress ink (ranger)
accessories; labels 17, classic lace border, lg classic oval, sm classic oval, cardinal family dies (spellbinders and spellbinders for heartfelt creations), tim holtz elegant flourish emboss folder (sizzix), sizzlets flourish dies #9, 10, 11 (sizzix), sparkle buttons (bazzill), rhinestones (heidi swapp), dyeable flowers (petaloo), white satin ribbon (offray), vintage glass glitter (art institute glitter)