In the birds nest

Good Morning everyone

This is one of those projects that turned out nothing like what i had in my head😀 

 I don't use much double sided tape, but i do use red liner for my envelopes and have been keeping the plastic rings that come in the middle, as thought i could use them instead of adding to landfill as our council won't take them for recycling......so a birds nest seemed a good starting point.....then these rainbow birdies turned out to be real magpies adding everything in sight into their nest😂

Canvas size 6x6".   See below for step by step of my background and nest building.  Once that was finished I stamped and coloured tim holtz crazy bird stamps and cut them out. 

I found a nice dry twig which i cut in half and adhered either side of the nest to give the effect of it being on a tree branch and surrounded with paper flowers picking up on the colour of the birds rather than true spring blossom colours.  

Creative expressions chat stickers which i backed with black card and covered with glossy accents 'Be real not perfect' 'choose happy' 'be unique' & 'dream'

To finish I edges the canvas with black which frames the scene nicely.

To adhere the plastic ring to the canvas i first glued it with glue gel and once that was dry, I tore old tissue paper into small pieces and used mod podge to adhered it, adding plenty over the top and sides of the hoop, i added 3 layers so that i had a good surface for my mediums to stick too rather than the plastic (pics 1&2).

I then took texture paste and smoothed it over the ring with a palette knife, I put some slight grooves in it to give it a look more like twigs (pic3)  I then used the texture paste through a splat stencil on the rest of the canvas (pic 4)  

Once the texture paste was completely dry I dabbed on acrylic paint in the same colours I used to colour my birdies - yes at this stage it looks a right mess (pic 5)

I then dry brushed on white gesso on the canvas and back gesso on the nest area.  This softens the 'mess' but you do still get the colours coming through (pic 6)  Doing layers like this really does make a difference to the finished artwork, rather than just having flat colour.  

I then dry brushed white gesso over the nest to soften the black (pic 7)

I filled the nest with reindeer moss & twine and then feathers in the same colour as my birds.

Then i dry brushed cadence dora paint in 'diamond' & 'gold' over the top to give a lovely shimmer to the finish when the light catches it - these paints give a similar effect as gilding waxes but i personally find them easier to use and of course being an acrylic paint they are far more versatile than some waxes..

Now this was my finished nest for my eggs but once I added the birds It just wasn't working and after days and days of thinking & looking and adding more and more it ended up like the finished result - very eclectic😁

and how i made my bird eggs.  A pack of foam eggs from poundland to start with, so that they were easier to handle i stuck them onto cocktail sticks which i could stand upright in a piece of polystyrene... I first coated them with white gesso, then mixed up the shade of pale blue i wanted in acrylic paint and gave them 2 coats, once dry splattered with brown and blue paint to give the speckled effect............for a first attempt at anything like this I was very pleased with the outcome....as the bag of foam eggs was quite large I will have to make some more in the future.

This just shows the plastic centres from the red liner tape, they are different depths, for my birds nest i used the deepest one of 8mm

Items Used:

Tim Holtz crazy bird stamps

Woodware mini splat stencil

Golden texture paste

Candence Dora paints 'diamond' 'rich gold'

Derwent inktense pencils

Black & White gesso

Pebeo acrylic paints

Creative expressions wordies sheets 'CEW003'

At the bottom of this post is some bead suncatcher ive also made using the plastic hoops if you fancy a peek.   Thank you all for stopping by, I hope my eclectic birdies have brightened your day with a smile and wishing you all a great week.  Big Hugs Emmaxx

Id love to enter the following:

https://countryviewchallenges.blogspot.com/2023/04/april-2023-things-with-wings.html

***

https://art-journal-journey.blogspot.com/2023/04/recycle-reuse-repurpose.html - i have repurposed the doublesided tape ring  & used tissue paper from a shoe box in the background

***

https://dd-tripleb.blogspot.com/2023/04/april-challenge.html - Ive gone with birds and blooms

***

https://daranddiane.blogspot.com/2023/04/things-that-fly.html

***

https://www.welovestamping.co.uk/2023/04/april-challenge.html

***

I also thought they would make great bases for some wire & bead suncatcher, i used the 4mm plastic inserts for these

This first one is a little garden scene with yellow, orange and red flowers, a little dragonfly is flying by too.  Approx 3" (8cm) in diameter 

I first wrapped them with 1mm craft wire, this one in 2 shades of green.  I often use metal base hoops for my suncatcher so the bonus of these plastic ones is they are so light to start with, so i definitely be keeping them all from now on.  Great to keep them out of landfill and make something pretty with them.  

 

Version 2 is the sun,using gold and orange wire and beads with a large crystal prism in the centre to give off rainbows when the direct sun hits it.

and version 3 is very blue, I found this butterfly broach in the charity shop and its the ideal centre, it is full of crystals that really shimmer in the light, i then used blue wire and beads to give the effect of a blue summer sky the butterfly is flying through.