As soon as I saw this month inspiration for the Papertrey September Ink Blog Hop, I knew I wanted to participate. I love the colors and the way they pop against the black background.

Although it's certainly not necessary to use a bird as the focal point, I turned to one of my favorite PTI sets, "Songbirds," and used some of the same colors and elements seen in the inspiration piece.

There are no wing dies in this set so I drew and fussy-cut one for the little bird. I sponged some "Honey Nut," "Cocoa Bean," and a touch of "Terracotta Tile" on the bird after die cutting it with Rustic White cardstock. I trimmed one branch from the leaf dies after they were cut from New Leaf and Green Parakeet cardstock. The little flowers were punched from very old punches in my collection. The banner and sentiment are both part of the "Songbirds" set.

Before adhering the black piece to the Pure Poppy card (love red and black!) I adhered a piece of fun foam to the back so it's popped up a bit. I'd love to have a stamp set that features the bird and flowers in the inspiration piece, but "Songbirds" will have to suffice for now.

I'm linking up to Papertrey Ink's Blog Hop and also to the Time Out Challenge:  "Paint The Flying Spirit Of The Birds Rather than its Feathers."

The days are flying by, and blogging seems to be at the bottom of the "to do" list; not intentionally, but by the time the day ends there's not much creative energy left for a blog post. I did get some crafting done over the weekend: a few cards, and another month of Project Life completed. Before I share those, however, I thought I'd share some more cards made with "Stemmed Statements." I think this might become a go-to set for floral cards. I have two sets of cards to share. The first with pansies and an ombre stamped background with the "Cover-up: Diamonds" background stamp. Both the "Stemmed Statements" and "Cover-up: Diamonds" stamps were in my July Papertrey Ink order. 

I used some of the Altenew mini-cube ink sets to stamp the ombre pattern for the background. The ink pads come in sets of four coordinating, and increasingly darker shades which really speeds up the process of creating an ombre pattern. The pansies and clovers were colored with Copics. I cut the background with a "Stitched Rectangle" die and added a trimmed "Double-ended Banner" with the sentiment.

This card is nearly a duplicate, stamped in a blue palette. I wanted to have a couple cards ready to send when I hear of someone in need of cheering up!

The second set of cards use the geranium image in the set. It's one of my favorites. Once the geraniums were colored, this card came together quickly, thanks to the patterned paper (also PTI) from the Lovely Lace kit. I didn't purchase the kit, but a friend recommended getting the paper pack, and I'm glad I did. Once again, a "Stitched Rectangle" die that I adhered to Simon Says Smoke cardstock. Their three gray papers are my favorite grays. The banner die is an old Spellbinder die, stamped with a sentiment from "Stemmed Statements."

I added three rainstones to the card for a bit of sparkle.

This time some pink geraniums mounted on a Spellbinders Oval die cut from another piece of patterned paper from the "Lovely Lace" pack. I made six score lines down the side of the card for some texture on the Fresh Snow Linen cardstock, and tied a bow from the white silk ribbon Papertrey Ink used to sell. I wish I had stockpiled a couple of spools of it before they discontinued it.

I think this card qualifies for this week's challenge at Addicted to CAS: Florals so I'll be linking it up there.