Celebrate Spring With Bird Song Minis & Cards!

Happy Friday G45ers,

What an amazing week it's been! Yesterday's announcement of our 30 finalists for the 2013 Graphic 45 Design Team Call was amazing! We want to thank all of you for your incredible support and heartwarming comments! We are so excited for the final round of our 2013 Design Team Call! To keep the energy and excitement going, we thought it would be fun to bring you two gorgeous crafts featuring Bird Song! Spring is the perfect season to craft with Bird Song! The bright colors and enchanting images brilliantly capture the harmonious spirit of the season! Today we're going to share a gorgeous diorama and mini album by Susan Lui. We will also be sharing a splendid Bird Song card and tutorial by Clare Charvill! Today's Graphic 45 blog is guaranteed to make you smile!

First up, it's prize time! We have a winner for this week's Place in Time blog contest! Chosen at random from this week's Facebook comments, the winner is...

-Sandy Camacho: "I'll be a fool for Graphic 45 paper ;o) Please ,would love to create something FAB!"

Congratulations, Sandy! Please email us with your shipping information at [email protected] to claim your prize! This is the wonderful prize that Sandy won today! We have a new blog contest every week here on the Graphic 45 blog so stay tuned for more chances to win some fabulous Graphic 45 goodies!

Okay, G45ers, are you ready to sing with Bird Song inspiration?! First up is this amazing 3-D mini album diorama by Susan Lui! This creation is out of this world! This is such a clever and unique way to create a mini album! Here Susan explains her inspiration behind this marvelous mini!

"The mini album at first glance appears like a regular flat mini. But it opens up into quite a surprise - a 3-dimensional circular diorama measuring 12 inches in diameter. All the images and photos in the diorama pop-up or stand vertically. The challenge with this mini was to create something that would lie flat when folded and yet transform into a pop-up book when open. That meant I could not use any dimensional embellishments like flowers, metal embellishments, even chipboards. It was just patterned paper all the way." -Susan Lui

 

Untying the silk ribbons and opening up the mini album...

A view from the top to show the 3D pop-up effects.

Supplies:

Graphic 45 Bird Song collection - Bird Song, Joy Luck, Pearls of Wisdom, Tranquility, Endless Spring, Cherry Blossom, Harmony, Longevity, Shangai Girls, Englightenment
Graphic 45 Bird Song collection Chipboard Diecuts 1 & 2
Graphic 45 Bird Song stickers
Graphic 45 8x8 Matchbook Box

 

Next up we have another beautiful Bird Song creation! This is a magnificent Bird Song card by Clare Charvill with lots of pretty layers and fun fussy cutting! Follow along with Clare's fun and easy tutorial to create this enchanting card for yourself or someone you love! This card is perfect for any occasion! Take it away, Clare!

I love the rich colours in the Bird Song collection and picked reds and blacks for this card to show case the fussy cut oriental flowers and birds.

Supplies:

Graphic 45 Supplies 

Bird Song 8 x 8 Longevity & Tranquillity paper

Bird Song 12 x 12 Pearls of Wisdom, Joy Luck and Harmony papers

Bird Song Sticker Sheet

Bird Song Alphabet Sticker Sheet

Bird Song Chipboard Die cuts 1

Staples black trim 

Other Supplies 

Black Card

Cream card stock  

Foam Tape 

Black Soot distress Ink 

Tacky Glue

To make the card take a black 6 x 6 card blank, cut a 5.75" square matte from the 8 x 8 Longevity paper.  Take the black and gold chipboard tag from Chipboard Die cuts 1, thread a short piece of staples black trim through the hole in the tag.  Ink the edges with black soot distress ink and then stick one end down to the back of the tag and the other to the back of the Longevity matte so the tag sits about 1/4" down from the paper.  Now stick the mate to your card. 

Now cut two mattes, the first 4" x 3" from cream card stock (I used the sheet that comes in the back of the 12 x 12 pads)  and the second 4.5" a 3.5" from the 8 x 8 Tranquillity paper.  Ink all edges with black soot and mount on black card (red side facing for the Tranquillity Matte) with a 1/16th " border around all edges.  Now layer the cream matte over the red one, centre with the card edges and stick down to your card.  Secure the tag in place with a little glue/double sided tape as shown in the picture below. 

Grab yourself a coffee and your favourite scissors and get ready to do some fussy cutting.  From the 12 x 12 Harmony paper cut out one blossom spray and two of the tiny single blossoms and from the 12 x 12 Joy Luck paper cut out the bird and magnolia spray.  Using a ball tool cup the tiny blossoms and stick onto your blossom spray to give a little dimension to the piece.

Ink the edges of both pieces with black soot distress ink, put some foam tape under the birds and the left underside of the blossom spray and a little tacky glue towards the right hand edges on both pieces ready to stick to your card.  Remove the backing tape and taking the bird cut apart position and stick down to your card over the cream matte (see pic) and then position and stick down the blossoms spray.

Cut two black fans from 12 x 12 Pearls of Wisdom paper, ink edges, pleat and add one either side of the birds and flowers on your card with a little tacky glue.

To finish the front of your card take the Elegance sticker from the Alpha sticker sheet, mount it on some black card, attach some foam tape to the back and stick to the bottom left of your card. 

For the inside of your card cut a 5.75" square cream card stock matte, ink all edges and stick down.  Take the red blossom border from the 8 x 8 Good Fortune paper, trim to 5.75" long, stick across your matte and finish with two stickers from the sticker sheet.

Wasn't that fun, G45ers? We've got one last quick announcement on today's blog! We've got a another fun craft challenge for all of you! It's a new month which means new opportunities to get creative and maybe win some beautiful Graphic 45 goodies! Read all about the Graphic 45 April Challenge below!

Thank you all so much for joining us on this fabulous Friday blog! We had so much fun getting to share today's gorgeous Bird Song crafts with all of you. Be sure to stop by our blog on Monday for more amazing craft inspiration. We will also be announcing 4 prize winners for the Graphic 45 and Echo Park Paper prize packs! We will also have a brand new blog contest on Monday as well! It's going to be a lot of fun! Huge thanks to Susan Lui and Clare Charvill for their beautiful work today! We wish you all a very happy day and a fantastic weekend!

Happy Papercrafting!

Your Friends at Graphic 45

 

Comments

[Jean A Marmo]

Stunning!

[Julie Tucker-Wolek]

Sooooooooo gorgeous!!

[Alina Igna]

ok... so that mini album is gorgeous! The idea is awesome! Can you make a tutorial on that? It's really really gorgeous!

[Sharon Young]

Congrats Sandy-have fun with your goodies. Wow, the circular diorama is fun and amazing. The card is just lovely and Clare your fussy cutting is excellent.

[Mary Jane W]

Susan's and Clare's projects are both so creative and inspiring. Thanks Clare for the tutorial!

[donnetta firster]

I love the pop up idea on the mini

[Jackie QH]

Susan Lui's Pop up is so beautiful!

[Olga Kolov]

Beautiful pop up and card!

[Jean Bullock]

Love the diorama pop up and the card. The Bird Song collection is gorgeous. Thanks so much for inspiration!

[Mary]

Congrats Sandy!! Beautiful and inspiring projects!!

[Romy]

Wow, the pop-up looks amazing - such a gorgeous and innovative project!
And I just love the beautiful card too!

[Michelle Salazar]

Beautiful and makes me wonder why I don't have any of that paper!

[Patricia Molnar]

Beautiful projects! Love the album! Thanks for the tutorial, its awesome!

[Martie Rollin]

Clare's card has convinced me to use this paper collection for my own cards. Thank you for the inspiration! That pop up project is amazing! I've heard of this sort of circular design, but never actually seen one. Lots of work! Both ladies are so talented!

[Dian Yustisia]

Marvelous work, Susan Lui!

[Annie C]

Wow! the pop-up mini book is just gorgeous, I love it - and that card is so beautiful, thanks so much ladies! :o)

[Caroline]

Congrats to this week's winner! A great week finished with a unique mini & a tutorial I could actually follow yay! Lol.. Have a brilliant weekend :)

[Jean Cavalier]

Todays projects are beautiful! Thank you for sharing .. Also thank you for chance to win prize package with April challenge :) I have 6x6, 8x8, and 12x12 paper pads and all the tags and chipboard for Secret Garden just waiting to be used lol
Congratulations to Sandy on winning the Place in Time package also!

[maura]

Your paper collection's are beautiful and very inspirational they make wonderful gifts for the scrappers who like to put together their own.

[julie]

Both projects are gorgeous - again I say, what wonderful imaginations your design team members have!
Thank you for sharing - Julie

[Patricia Howarth]

Stunning projects, stunning papers, so inspirational xx

[Alma Jean King]

Stunning was my word also. The Birdsong Collection items really make me want to use these papers.

[Carol B]

Wow, incredibly gorgeous!!

Carol B
ciaoitalia2007(at)gmail(dot)com

[Tricia]

Is that Fabric eyelet lace on the mini album?

[Donna W]

So very creative and beautiful. Love the pop ups. Amazing how she did that.

[Karen Itzenhuiser]

Gorgeous papers...love the projects!

[Gela]

Would love to how Susan made the awesome pop up card.

[Dreamer]

The papers and the projects are simply beautiful. Would love a tutorial on how to make the mini pop up! I'm sort of new to all of this, and need all the help I can get!

[Judy B]

I am so in love with your papers!! I have yet to see one that I didn't love (or want for that matter, lol) Seriously tho I drool every time I see your posts.

[Beneta]

Beautiful album. Would love to take a stab at making one. Is there a tutorial? Card is gorgeous also. Thanks for showcasing.