The Queen's Inkling: Bird in the Hand By Judi Kauffman for The Queen’s Ink

This is one of those projects that came together without any planning. I had just received some new dies (arms and hearts from AccuCut, the metal blade dies that cut five sheets of cardstock like butter)) and I had two stamped Crazy Birds with feather tails left over after making the batch of ‘You Got This’ cards for my tutorial a couple of weeks ago. Bingo! That old saying about a bird in the hand came to mind and before I knew it, I’d made some 6” x11” wall ornaments.

Some of the hearts called out for a word or two. The birds needed dimensional eyes. The hands just HAD to have glitzy rings and the arms needed fancy bracelets.

Now all I need to do is decide whether I’m willing to fold them for mailing or if I’m going to spring for a long envelope and pay the extra postage…or I might end up hand-delivering this batch to local friends.

CLASS NOTES
Want to get in on the action? I’d be delighted to bring the arm and heart dies to The Queen’s Ink for a mini workshop if anyone is interested. Please leave a comment here or call the store and the first five people who want to meet me for an hour or two on a weekend later this winter will be included.

Here’s the deal: No class fee. I’m donating my time. But each person who attends must spend at least $20 on anything you want from the store shelves (not necessarily paper or cardstock – you can bring your own!). Everybody will take turns using the dies – you can cut as many arms and hearts as you want during the time block.

I’ll also bring some of the stickers I used for the ‘jewelry’ to share.

Instructions:

1. Hand- or die-cut an 11” long arm with hand. Hand- or die-cut one or more hearts for each wall card. Tips: If using scrapbook paper, a design with a long vertical pattern is a great choice! If dies are unavailable, search for patterns online or trace your own hand and arm, scan and re-size the sketch on a computer and print it at 11” or whatever size you prefer!

2. Use stickers and gems to create a ring and a bracelet. Options: Instead of stickers, stamp and color or stencil on jewelry motifs, or use lace or trim or other embellishments.

3. Add the heart(s), stamped bird or word(s). Use die cuts, create ransom note-style words, use alphabet stickers.

4. Pierce a small hole in the index finger, add metallic braid or twine for a hanging loop.