Cardinals for Christmas

 

Cardinals are quintessential Christmas birds, not only for the male's bright red coloring, but because I only see them in the winter here in Florida. 

These birds are created with a die from Gina Marie Designs called Layering Cardinal. I have to tell you, this didn't come with instructions and I had a real time trying to figure out how to do the wing layers and the legs/feet. I found only one example of this assembled on line so I took that one and ran with it. The card above is 5" by 6.5", larger than the usual cards I make. The wreath is build with various greenery from Spellbinders' kits. 

One of my pet peeves with art featuring cardinals is that there are often multiple males in the picture, but no females. What's up with that?   So for this card I took the die and cut it from some golden brown card stock and flipped it over to make the mirror image. I used a bone folder to smooth down the cut edges since the back side isn't as finished looking around the edges.

The greenery that the birds are perched on are from assorted bits from Spellbinders' kits, as are the script die cut sentiments.  I had the silver snowflake die cuts in a cup on my desk from several years ago. The card below was also inked around the perimeter of the navy base with black soot Distress Oxide ink, and finished with some baker's twine at the top fold.