Challenge Entry: Blue Bird of Peace Ornament

Still in the Christmas mood today, so I made another ornament specifically for the Simon Says Shaped Cards / Creations Challenge.  No rectangles or squares allowed...talk about thinking outside the box! 
I got a little funky with this one, but I'm really thrilled with the result!

The Details:
There's a lot going on here, so I'm going to try to just touch on the most unique parts.

• The base of the ornament is a chipboard ring that I embossed with the Tim Holtz Woodgrain texture fade and colored with Vintage Photo DI.  I gave it a spritz of Perfect Pearls Pearl Mist and added white acrylic paint in areas, applied to look like snow. 
• The bird started life as a raw chipboard shape.  I received my new phone book last week and was about to pitch the old one when I realized that the thin pages would make fantastic texture and grungy text backgrounds!  (And really, isn't this the only use for a phone book anymore?  If they didn't just show up on my porch...)  So, to create some texture on the birdie's tail feathers, I made a big ol' mess with Matte Mod Podge and ripped up phone book pages that finally turned into some pretty cool fluffiness.  After numerous layers of paint and distress inks, I added gold glittered Christmas floral fern leaves as a wing and additional tail feathers and some gold Stickles down the longer tail feathers.

• After painting, papering, and distressing the bird, I covered him in a thin coat of Rock Candy Distress Paint.
• The branch is cut using the Fancy Flourishes Two SVG set from The Creative Pointe, SCAL, and my Cricut.  LOVE this set...it's so versatile.  I cut the branch from green decorative paper, then added several layers of UTEE to give it some thickness and shine.  You wouldn't immediately think Christmas when looking at it, but with the addition of some Xmas Red Stickles holly berries, well, I think it's pretty Christmas-y!  I then added large crystal glitter to make the branch look frosted...so yummy!

• Fancy Flourishes Two contains three very versatile border flourishes and may be purchased from Diecut Designer or TKO Scraps.

Fancy Flourishes Two Set by The Creative Pointe

• The final touches were the "Peace" banner and the hand dyed seam binding bow.  This was my first time dying seam binding and I'm very pleased with the result.  Instead of water, I sprayed the seam binding with Pearl Perfect Pearls Mist and then dragged it through Barn Door DI, a touch of Vintage Photo and Stormy Sky DI, and some SU! Real Red.

And here he is again, my funky little blue bird of peace...  This took a while (mostly waiting for things to dry), but was so much fun!

Supplies:
Paper: K&Co; phone book page; scrap background paper
SVG:  Fancy Flourishes Two Set by The Creative Pointe
Stamps: JoAnn
Inks: Distress Ink ‘Crushed Olive’, ‘Barn Door’, ‘Broken China’, ‘Vintage Photo’, ‘Old Paper’, ‘Stormy Sky’; Versamark; StazOn ‘Timber Brown’; SU! reinker ‘Real Red’; Folk Art acrylic paint ‘Wicker White’; Americana acrylic paint ‘Baby Blue’
Embellishments: UTEE; JoAnn glitter ‘Crystal’; Glossy Accents; Perfect Pearls Mists ‘Perfect Pearl’; Hug Snug seam binding; chipboard bird; chipboard ring; TH texture fade ‘Woodgrain’; gold cord; Stickles ‘Xmas Red’, ‘Black Diamond’, ‘Gold’; Christmas floral
Tools: foam ink blending tool; heat gun; Matte Mod Podge; tweezers; make-up sponge; TH paper distresser; glue dots; emery board; 3M Super 77 spray adhesive, Texture Boutique; Cricut Expression; Sure-Cuts-A-Lot (SCAL)