Fine Feathers

We've been away on a little jaunt and it's hard getting back into the regular routine, isn't it?  I've a few photos to share in a minute, but first as it's another Friday it means it's time for another Daring Cardmakers Challenge.
This week Sharon is in the Dare-setter's chair and her challenge is:

  Light as a Feather
As feathers seem to be on trend at the moment I'd like to see feathers on your card somewhere - and you don't have to take it too literally - you could think a bit beyond the feather and feature a whole bird!
As an extra bonus this week we have a fabulous prize to give away!   All you need to do is join in with the dare and we'll pick someone randomly next week to receive the prize.
This week's prize is generously donated by Sarah Keerie, an independent Stampin' Up Demonstrator.  She's offering the Hip Hip Hooray card kit to one lucky winner (or a stamp set to the same value).

Well, I knew it was a good idea to grab all those lovely freebies that are given away on the Silhouette shop site - you never know when they will come in useful! I didn't really need to use it - I do have various other feathery themed things I could have used - but I wanted to see how it cut as it looks quite fiddly, and fiddly things don't always work so well when cut small enough for cards.

 

Included in the cut file is the "membrane" bit (I'm sure there's a proper word for it) that goes up the centre of the feather shape.  Whilst the feather cut pretty well at about 7cms long, that extra piece was so skinny it would have been a right pain to stick in place so I didn't even bother trying!
It would have been good not to have to cut that piece at all, but if it's possible to separate the pieces on a cut file, well I don't know how to do it.  
When I make templates myself, I always save the component parts as separate "bits" so that I can use the ones I want.  
But hey, this was a freebie after all!

Materials and Tools
Papers: all from MME "Find Your Wings and Fly" 6x6 pads
White, Black and Orange Bazzill card
Silhouette machine to cut the feathers
Spellbinders scalloped and plan circles for the bird's body
Eyes: XCut punch white circles, black circles cut with Cropadile, white dots added with Posca pen
Feet and beak are hand cut from card scraps
The body and head of the bird are mounted on "box" hinges so they fold down for posting

I think I lowered the rather lovely and serene tone of the Daring Cardmakers blog this week haha with my rather flustered-looking birdie - do pop over and see the beautiful cards the rest of the team have made!

Anyway, back to our trip
We headed up to Yorkshire for a little holiday recently - we drive up and down the A1 fairly regularly,  but as it was a lovely day, we veered further east into "new pastures" to visit  Gainsborough Old Hall.

 This is the Great Hall

We didn't head back to the A1, but continued our journey north on quieter roads - which meant we could get the roof off and enjoy the sunshine (if not the pollen).  Our new route took us via the Humber Bridge - another "first" for us - you can see it snaking across this first picture

 And an attempt at an artyish shot ....

I'll get some photos of where we stayed sorted out and post those next time - so be warned!

Thanks for popping by today