Once Upon a Shoe Bugaloo

Saturday's inspiration challenge from SCS asks us to look at the Bugaloo website. I chose these shoes for my inspiration.

At first, I was looking for what would help me use my stash left over from the invitations I just finished. The color scheme for these shoes helped with that. I love that we are dealing with leather, and texture, and stitching, so I tried to incorporate the feel of each.

For this 4.25 x 5.5" card on SU! Chocolate Chip cardstock, I used some of SU's Walk in the Park Designer Series Paper from its Occasions mini-catalog as my first layer. I liked how, in the inspiration piece, the leaves were cut out to show the layer underneath. Knowing my low-level craft knife skills, I chose paper piecing the leaves on the tree and the wing on the bird to match this base, rather than trying to cut out a window for very small parts.

I chose to use Cornish Heritage Farms Pretty Birds from the Kim Hughes Collection. I love the play on words for the sentiments. I chose "Somebirdy Special," deciding to make one of the birds differ from the rest. I tried to give him a shadow, too... I have to work on that a bit more. Looks like he had a little accident. :)

For shading, I used my Copics: Cool Gray, Pale Blue, Burnt Umber, and Atoll. For stamping, I used SU! Chocolate Chip. For faux stitching, I used SU! Close to Cocoa marker. I paper-pieced the limb, the leaves, and the stand-out birdy. For the So Saffron layer, I embossed with Cuttlebug's Stylized Flowers folder.

I think it's pretty cute.