'Hope' is the thing with feathers!

I like entering those Simon Says Stamp challenge - So every now and again with enough time and the when I have the crafty stash that aligns with either the Monday or Wednesday challenge, I give it a go - and this one was really fun to do.  The theme of the Wednesday challenge is Feathers or Fur.  Anyhow, this was great because it made me think of that Emily Dickinson poem - 'Hope' is the thing with feathers.  AND  I always hope that the random number generator will pick my number - because who wouldn't like $25 from Simon Says Stamp.  And so here we are - and this is going to be my entry....I figure this is going to be my best shot.

A little walk through on the making of the card so that you can.  I wanted to keep the colours muted and somewhat masculine - because I think I am going to give this one to my dad for Father's day. 

I made the background patterned paper by distress inking (Vintage Photo, Brushed Courdroy and Walnut Stain) through an A4 sized page of various feather patterns in stencil film that I may have either got from Crazy Plastics or Westpack - I cant really remember for sure because it was a while back - however you all know that I recently have been making patterned paper from cake stencils that I got from Temu - so I had a little squiz over there - and I think I will be ordering this from them next.

I have an affiliate link that you can use to get 30% and some free gifts and a R2000 coupon bundle if you are a new user. You can do that by clicking on this link - 

⭐️Click the link https://temu.to/m/ulqdrhgg4l0 to get 💰R2,000 coupon bundle

 or ⭐️ Search  

acp636712 on the Temu App to get 💰30% off discount !!

I drew and doodled on the stencilled feathers to give it a bit of personalisation and interest with Pentel Metallic gels and the grey jelly roll set from Sakura.  

Over that I ran a strip of natural burlap  ribbon that you can pick up from Temu for next to nothing - you can paint the edges to match your colour pallette with one coat acrylic by masking off the centre of the ribbon with masking tape. 

I thought it would be super cute to have a heartshaped woodslice over that -
the woodslice comes from the amazing Sizzix/Tim Holtz Woodslice collection.

A while ago we used to have a stationery and magazine store chain that I think that has since gone out of business - they used to import these monthly magazines called  Die-cutting Essentials or something like that - they were awesome - every month you would get a die as a freebie. The feather die came from one of them. And I had guinea fowl feather that I picked up somewhere that I added on top of the paper feathers to give it a little textural interest.

I am kinda sad that my phone camera and lighting really washes out the colour on this card.  While the tone is muted browns, blues and greys - the actual card is a little more saturated and those contrasting colours and patterns really work so elegantly together.  I didnt want to stick on a "hope" sentiment on the card so I used the 'hugs' instead because like I said earlier my dad is going to be the recipient of this card for Father's day.

I watercoloured a bit inbetween in the white spaces between the feathers just to tie in the colours a little bit for a more cohesive feel. And that was that!

Anyway I hope you like this entry.  I hope the Simon Says Stamp random generator likes my entry too!

Finally, I leave you with this gorgeous little poem by Emily Dickinson - enjoy...

“Hope” is the thing with feathers 

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.