Bird Inspiration

One of the many blogs I read is The Classroom by Julia Stainton and I was inspired by one of her cards back in Dec. Here is the link if you would like to see hers and what I took from her creation to make mine  http://ellenhutson.typepad.com/the_classroom_new/2011/12/natural-beauty-card-by-julia-stainton.html

Here is how my card came out:

I loved Julia's chipboard bird with the doily and all the texture but I didn't have a chipboard bird. I did have some Martha Stewart bird stamps that I bought a looong time ago and have never used. This was the time to pull them out. I decided I would use distress inks to paint the bird. I chose my colors then pressed each ink pad onto my craft mat and spritzed each color lightly with water and used a paint brush to paint the bird and leaves. I sprayed it with Perfect Pearls to help blend the colors and give it a little shine. After it dried I cut it out.

After deciding on the color of the card base I decided to use a white doily so my cluster of embellishments did not fade into the background. I inked the edges with distress ink so it wasn't too white.  The corrugated paper is another thing that I have had forever but I have used. After I dye cut the label with my die and Cuttlebug I inked it with a gold ink pad that I just lightly ran across the ridges. Then I inked the edges with Walnut Distress ink.

For the blue strip I used a piece of canvas I had leftover from another project and inked it with blue distress ink by using the blending tool. I then frayed the edges and adhered it to the corrugated label.

Next I punched a label and used a script stamp with tea dye distress ink then stamped the thank you with black ink and embossed it with black sparkle embossing powder. After I punched the heart out of red cardstock I spritzed it with some of the Perfect Pears water and let it dry before adhering it to the tag. I used gold pearls in the bottom corner and inked the edges of the tag with Walnut Stain distress ink before adhering the tag to the blue canvas and corrugated label.

I love all the lovely layers of Julia's card and wanted to transfer those over to my card. I think I accomplished that. For some reason I have a hard time doing lots of layers. I get a couple of layers and then I think it's good, can't of anything else to add or I am afraid it will ruin the card so I just stop while I am ahead.  

I do like how the tag came out but I wish the bird had turned out a bit better.

I was wondering how you all come up with your card ideas. Are you usually inspired from paper, stamps, a card sketch or someones card like I was inspired by Julia's card?