Hello, Hello, Hello . . .

For my August Creative Connections Class, I knew I wanted to create a card that could be used for back-to-school with an owl peeking out of a tree, using the new Early Espresso Core'dinations Card Stock, the new Woodgrain Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, and the Owl Builder Punch.  Around the time I was planning, I happened to see this adorable card by Mary Fish, which was pretty close to what I was envisioning and certainly served as inspiration for my final design!  

Here's how my sample card for the class turned out:

  

I started with a Crumb Cake base.  The owl's tree is created with the Early Espresso Core'dinations Card Stock, with a 1-3/4" Circle punched out, then embossed with the Woodgrain folder, and sanded.  (Note: During class, we discovered it didn't matter whether you punched the circle out of the Core'dinations before or after embossing; you get the same results either way.)  There's also a piece of More Mustard, which is die cut using one of the Finishing Touches Edgelits, and a piece of the Howlstooth & Scaringbone Designer Series Paper (I love that the designs in the package have great fall colors that can be used for so much more than just Halloween!)  There's also a piece of Cherry Cobbler Scalloped Dot Ribbon, with the dotted side adhered down to the card.

For the owl, I used Basic Gray for the body.  His chest and eyelids are punched out of More Mustard.  His beak is Pumpkin Pie.  And, his eyes are Very Vanilla and Early Espresso.  The feathers are drawn on his chest with a Cherry Cobbler Stampin' Write Marker.

The "hello, hello, hello" greetings are created with a stamp from the Tiny Tags Stamp Set.  The images in that set are designed to coordinate with the Jewelry Tag punch, but it turns out that they also can work well with at least one of the punches in the Little Labels Punch Pack.   Here's a close up:

For a finishing touch, I added a little bow created out of Natural Linen Thread.

Here's another variation on the card that I created during the class:

For this one, I used a different pattern from the Howlstooth & Scaringbone.  The greeting is from the Mixed Medley Hostess Stamp Set (in the Holiday Catalog), punched out with the new 1-1/4" Scallop Circle Punch and the 3/4" Circle Punch.  For this owl, I added a few more details, inspired by my amazing friend Lea and the owl she created:

And, here's Lea's owl, with a birthday hat similar to the one Mary Fish created for her owl.  Lea had the brilliant idea to use the stem from the Bird Builder Punch's branch to create uniformly curved stripes on her owl's party hat!!!  She even added a Pearl Jewel to top it off.  I also love Lea's owl's beak -- she used the heart from the Owl Builder punch, but instead of tucking it under as I did, she created a small score line in the beak, and adhered it over her owl's chest.

Did you notice Lea's two other brilliant additions to the card?  First is the owl's nest -- created with a bit of Linen Thread, and second is the addition of the non-textured circle of Early Espresso Core'dinations behind the owl!  Very creative!!!  You can bet I'll be incorporating those ideas in my next variation on this card, too!

Hope these ideas inspire you to create something fun, too!  Thanks for visiting my blog!

- Michelle