I have funny (and a little sad) story to share this week. My die cutting machine at our cottage quit working on Friday (that’s the sad part), but I still needed to complete a card for this post. I turned to my “extra” die cut stash and created this card with items I already had cut and some images were already colored, too. I managed to find enough “extras” that could work together (design and color) to make this collage of new beginnings – a seed packet design, a nest of eggs and bird, sweet florals and two layers of delicate daisy covers. Personally, I love how it turned out. I’m using the following Honey Bee Stamps products:

Lovely Layers: Spring Birds Honey Cuts dies

Lovely Layers: Spring Greenery Honey Cuts dies

Lovely Layers: Nest Honey Cuts dies

Thinking of You Big Time stamp sets and coordinating Honey Cuts dies

Spring Seeds stamp set and coordinating Honey Cuts dies

Delicate Daisy A2 Cover Plate Top Honey Cuts dies

Delicate Daisy A2 Cover Plate Base Honey Cuts dies

The featured project below is made from Neenah 80lb Solar White cardstock for the card base and many of the die cuts. All of the black ink stamping was done using Honey Bee’s Bee Creative Intense Black Ink. I use Honey Bee Stamps Bee Creative Precision Glue for adhering my elements together. My card is 5″ X 7″ in size. I use the Bee Creative Clear Embossing and Watermark Ink Pad for heat embossing of the sentiment.

In my stash, I had this fun seed packet design from the spring collection and it was already colored in blues and greens. It’s beautiful and it inspired me. From there, I found the nest of eggs and the bird and thought they could work together. I have wanted to use this bird, but had never found the right project for it. The one thing all three items had in common was the color blue and the birth of something pretty!

To make this 5″ X 7″ card, I splattered white paint over blue cardstock for the background. Blue was the common element so that was my starting point. I used the Delicate Daisy Cover Plates – top and bottom in a warm gray and white – to make the next layers. I had cut several of these to use and had an extra set.

I layered the blueberry seed packet design, nest and bird over the backgrounds. I new I needed to add some greenery and florals to connect the larger pieces so I went back to my stash and found pieces to use in various greens. Fortunately, my white flowers had not been colored yet so I colored them in Copic YG68, YG15 and YG61 to match the breast of the bird at the top to unify the collage.

I also tucked in some taupe-colored crinkled hem tape under the nest for an added dimensional element. I added a few drops of aged brass to the daisy centers on the background to unite the brown nest to the background. Finally, I wanted to add a sentiment and so back to my stash, I combed through what I had to use and found the “thinking of you” sentiment that was embossed in white on purple cardstock. Purple and blue play well together since purple is half blue. Unfortunately, I could not find the “of” in the sentiment so I stamped one from the Spring Seeds stamp set, hand cut it and glued it in place. I attached the card front collage of new beginnings to a card base to complete this project. I am in love with how this turned out considering that I used all items from my extra stash. Have you ever given this a try? It’s kind of a fun challenge to try and it uses up some pieces you have on hand. Now, it’s time to order a new die cutting machine for the cottage!

You can shop the entire collection of Honey Bee Stamps products here. If you decide to place an order, please use the links in this post so that Honey Bee knows which ideas inspired you!

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