I was so happy to finally have the time to get Gracie’s newest release on my craft desk and now I have this beautiful Christmas card to add to my stash!

I sized, placed and created the cut for this card in Silhouette Studio, so that I would have this partial cut window in the panel. Once that was printed & cut I could start to colour my cutie little birdy!

I decided to make my bird a Cardinal; I thought it would look festive and I love the vibrant, yet deep, red of the Cardinal’s feathers.

I had a photo reference up whilst I coloured my Cardinal to help me get the colour & tone placement right. I know a lot of people feel that using a reference is ‘cheating’ but it is so important to be able to see what you are trying to recreate.

I am not talking about looking at something another person has made and copying it, I mean having a photograph, or several, of the actual object/person/animal etc. This gives you the opportunity to see where the shadows and highlights are naturally. Just getting this shadow & highlighting right, alone, will completely transform and elevate your image!

Do you ever use a photo reference when you are drawing or colouring something?

I cut down a panel of deep teal cardstock so that it was 1/4 inch bigger each way than my bird panel. Then added splatters of white Gouache across the whole panel, I wanted these to just be a suggestion of snow to add to the festive vibe!

I popped my bird panel up on foam tape over the teal panel, leaving an equal border of 1/8 inch on all sides.

The final touch was a dot of Nuvo Glaze on the bird’s eye!