Well done to Hazel Flynn, who contributed to the Authors For Fireys fundraiser in January 2020. Emily Gale and Nova Wheetman organised this mammoth undertaking. They raised $513,149 to support firefighters and to help Australia’s bushfire survivors. This Tim Holtz crazy bird card is a ‘thank you’ card for Hazel.
The entire list of original Authors For Fireys series of interviews and guest blogs are here. The ‘thank you’ posts, each of which include my cardmaking efforts, are here.
Hazel appeared as a guest blogger on Dark Matter Zine back in January so, several months ago, I sent her a thank you card.
This is the final in this series. I sent a few other cards but didn’t keep records of which card went to which person so… shrug. However, there are more “thank you” cards and other card posts so the card series continues under the Art & Craft category.
About this card
I have to say I still love this card. It’s not flawless – I’m not sure if I’ll ever be capable of a truly professional card – but I like the way this card looks. And I’m inspired to pull out those Tim Holtz Crazy Bird stamps to make some more.
The background is smooth cardstock with Distress Oxide Inks blending. I’m not sure of the exact colors other than some blue – probably Faded Jeans, Chipped Sapphire and Black Soot, applied with a blending tool. (I didn’t have blending brushes when I made this.)
Perfect Pearls, probably in the “pearl” color, gives the shiny spots. I probably also flicked drops of water on the card and soaked them up with a paper towel to also give some variation in the background.
The branch is colored cardstock cut with a die and the Big Shot, then colored with a black, brown and white marker to give dimension.
The bird is a stamp, done in black with a copic-safe ink – probably Memento Tuxedo Black. I colored it in using copic markers. I think. Or maybe the Sizzix alcohol markers. But I think I had a few copics by this time. I outlined the bird with a black marker so the cut edges don’t show up white but also put some white Gelly Roll pen for highlights. The eyes have Glossy Accents for dimension and shine.
The “thank you” is die-cut. I’m not sure now if I cut it from white or colored cardstock but I colored it in pink to match the bird but to intentionally be varied in tone. And, as usual, the Authors for Fireys label I printed out.
My thoughts on the outcome
I really like the nighttime background with the bright cheerful contrast. And I love the “crazy” series, it has ATTITUDE. Expect more crazy bird cards, crazy cats, crazy dogs and more.
Have a great week!
Thanks for visiting DMZ. If you’re a crafter who’s visiting out of the blue, you are very welcome to comment, to link to card and scrapbooking websites. All comments are moderated so please be patient, genuine comments always go up eventually! And if you’re one of my “usual” crowd, feel free to comment here or on Twitter. This year has been rough for everyone, reach out. If not to me, then to others. Let’s all support one another.
Thanks for visiting and have a great week.
