My Cards and Tags: Using Right at Home's Cozy Cardinal Stamp

Our theme this week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog is, "All Creatures Great and Small."  I went with a cute little cardinal for my card:

I started by stamping my cardinal.  The stamp comes in different sections, so it's nice to be able to customize the different components of your bird.

I thought Dina Wakley's Splatter Girl image would make an interesting background, so I stamped it onto Strathmore Mixed Media paper using Ranger Jet Black Archival Ink.  I masked off part of the girl's face before stamping since I wanted to use it as an abstract shape only.  

Next I stamped on some circles from a Carabelle Studio printing texture plate.  These printing texture plates work fine as stamps, too (in my opinion).  The images will stamp backwards, but that didn't matter to me in this case.  I stuck mine to an acrylic block with double-stick tape and used it just like a normal stamp.

I smeared Distress Ink onto my circles, then punched a circular frame out of a cookbook page scrap.  I stamped and fussy-cut the Kindness sentiment (colored with markers), and fussy-cut the bird, too.  I also cut a section of foliage using a Simon die and a magazine page.  I laid all the elements out.

I made a party hat for the bird then glued everything on and softened a few areas with a bit of white paint.  I also stamped on some random sentiment words from Simon's Kind Flowers stamp set.

Here are the supplies I used that you can find at Simon Says Stamp:

Cozy Cardinal Stamp by Right At Home	Dina Wakley Splatter Girl Stamp Set	Carabelle Studio Ronds Art Printing Texture Plate	Simon Says Stamp Kind Flowers stamp	Sizzix BIG SHOT EXPRESS Gray and White
Simon Says Stamp Clustered Leaves Die	Pink and Main Beach Babe 6x6 Paper	Strathmore Mixed Media Paper	Spectrum Noir Markers: Turquoise	Doodlebug Limeade Sprinkles
Tim Holtz Distress Twisted Citron Ink Pad	Peeled Paint - Distress Ink	Peacock Feathers - Distress Ink	Picked Raspberry - Distress Ink	Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad LUCKY CLOVER Ranger
Color Box Kiss Petal Point Pigment Pad	Ranger Archival Aquamarine Ink Pad	Ranger Archival Jet Black Ink Pad	3D Foam Dots	Dina Wakley Ranger WHITE Media Heavy Body Acrylic Paints
Dina Wakley TANGERINE Heavy Body Acrylic Paints	Dina Wakley Lime Acrylic Paint

I'm looking forward to how you celebrate all creatures great and small this week!  Upload your creations to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog for your chance to win $50 to the Simon Says Stamp store.