The Nightingale

There is a wonderful children's fairy tale written by Hans Christian Anderson about a Nightingale who lives in the garden belonging to the Emperor of China. I won't spoil the beautiful story, but the tale ends when the plain Nightingale with the beautiful voice agrees to live in outside in the garden and sing to the Emperor until the end of his days. The Emperor agrees that he will never again cage the Nightingale, no matter how beautiful the cage may be. When I saw this beautiful and detailed wooden bird cage, and the sweet little bird wooden cuts from Unique Laser Designs.   I was reminded of the old story of the little brown bird with the golden voice.

 I began with the Bird Cage - Fancy, with so many pretty and intricate details.

Then I added the Bird on Fancy Branch. I chose to keep the bird natural and unpainted. The wooden die cuts are absolutely beautiful on their own, and I like how the tones in the wood seemed to fit the image of the plain Nightingale. In addition, having a plain, unpainted die cut on a card or project with a lot of other vivid embellishment and texture is a great way to really highlight the unique and special addition of a wooden laser cut.

I painted the Bird Cage with white acrylic paint, then covered it with sparkling white glitter.

I added the Bird on Fancy Branch at the top, then adhered the cage, and two more paper die cuts to my patterned paper and black card stock base. Then I added the beautiful "jewels" of the Emperor's empty cage. The tale of the Nightingale is complete.

No matter how many photographs I took, I was unable to truly capture the beautiful sparkle of the cage, and the dazzling shine of the jewels when the light hits them just right. But you can see the pretty details of such a special wooden die cut and how you can transform it into a jeweled cage.  I used gemstone embellishments that resemble rubies, emeralds, sapphires, Chinese peridots and light blue tanzanite.  It's a nice reminder that even a jeweled cage cannot hold the beautiful voice of the Nightingale.

Live your life in color!

Materials List:
Unique Laser Designs
    Bird on Fancy Branch 
    Bird Cage - fancy, 
Other
    Black card stock
    Pattern Card stock, Moxie Frosted
    Red card stock
    Light pink card stock
    Paper Lanterns die, Memory Box
    Delicate Chain die, Poppystamps
    Chloe Stem die, Memory Box
    white glitter
    adhesive
    assorted jewel bling