Gallery Idol Round 2 - time to vote!

It's that time again - time to share my card for Round 2 of Gallery Idol.

Still pretty amazed to be part of this group of talented cardmakers. This week's challenge was to use die cuts in a creative way. I made 2 cards with the assistance of my trusty Silhouette, which saw more action in one day that it has seen the entire 3 years I've owned it. (Thank you Silhouette for not flaming out on me when I needed you most!) Here is the card I submitted today.

and here's a close up:

materials: cardstock: Bazzill; patterned paper: Girls Paperie, American Crafts, Sassafras Lass; string: Divine Twine; floss: DMC; paint: Plaid; die cutter: Silhouette

How did I use die cuts on this card? Here's step one...I cut the bird shape, a recent Silhouette store download, then used it to trace the shape onto my card. I traced with paint and while I was at it, added some paint to the card edges too. After the paint dried, I outlined a more defined shape with a light grey marker, then I machine sewed over that line twice:

Then I cut the little flowers (lots of them), another Silhouette store download. I cut this shape, which included 4 different flower shapes, at around 1.25" so they would be tiny enough to fit into the bird shape.

I filled up the shape with a variety of the flowers (they were cut onto 3 different patterns) then added a handful of french knots for texture. What really drove the design home was that quote, which I found online. It's by Aesop (of fable fame) from The Jay and the Peacock. I like that the moral speaks to the value of being good on the inside - that the superficial exterior stuff isn't what makes a person.

So...you know the drill. Time to vote. Here is the link to the gallery and voting place. I would love to move onto the next round and will need to make the top 10 to do that. Therefore, I need your votes.
Oh, how grateful I am that I will be traveling this week and distracted by CHA - last week felt so long waiting and wondering if I was going to make it through. I'll definitely share the 'b' card later in the week.

Want to give a special shout out to my pal Jan who helped me decide which card to submit this week. She's an amazing cardmaker - you can see her gorgeous creations here on her blog. Thank you Jan!