One of the very first items I ordered from the new catalogue was the Bird Ballad Laser Cut Cards. They are stunningly beautiful and a fantastic price point. Along with the decorative tin, they make a perfect gift set for a fellow stamper as is, or with a few small paper inserts, a lovely gift of all occasion cards for a friend.

Today was finally the day to break open the box and start making some cards - they aren't doing anyone any good hiding in the box!  They are so beautiful, it doesn't really take much to make them beautiful, but it is important to understand that they really do need a piece of coloured card stock glued behind the front panel to be able to truly appreciate the intricacy of the laser cut lace. 

As I tried different papers, I noticed that most patterned designer series papers clashed with the lace, making it look far too busy - and the backside of the paper didn't always work with it showing inside.  Papers with very fine patterns and little colour variation work ok, but plain solid card stock works perfectly.  I used panels of yellow, purple, blue and pink cut to 4-1/8" x 5-3/8" and glued them along the very edges on the inside.

Then I used my 2.5" circle punch, fussy cutting, and a scalloped die to cut birds from the Bird Ballad DSP to embellish the front.  I found that using contrasting colours behind and on the tags worked great.  The DSP has pinks, blues, purples, greens, oranges and yellows in the birds and flowers, so all of these colours for papers works well in combination.

   

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