Little birdie brooch.

Always about this time of year I have an obsession with birds and birdhouses as we have them nesting in two of our nest boxes in the garden plus 5 Housemartin nests on the side of the house. They fascinate me and give me heaps of inspiration for journal pages and paintings but I thought I'd do something a little bit different and take them off the page by making a brooch.

I used a piece of Claudine Hellmuth sticky backed canvas, cut out the house shape and painted it with Adirondack dabber in Citrus. I backed it onto a piece of felt, trapping some tulle in between, went around the edges with the sewing machine and added the Tim Holtz tissue paper off cut and a piece of lace trim.  

The bird is from Prima and I added a touch of light blue paint to it and stitched him on. 

The little bottle which is from a Tim Holtz Idea-ology corked vials packet, holds a piece of lace, some mini mini shells and a twig and is held on with some stitching. (I also added a small blob of glue to hold it in place and stop the stitching from coming undone).

I wouldn't normally show you the backs of my projects but I have to show you this neat brooch pin by Finnabair as part of a packet of Vintage Mechanicals. Ok it's sewn on a bit squiffy but as I said normally I wouldn't show you this side :)

You could make one of your own and instead of making a brooch why not stick the canvas to a tag as it's already sticky?

See you next week

Jaine x

Nests are best.

 

Hello there, well we're into March already and here the temperatures have gone well up from -3 or 4 a week ago to 12 yesterday. Amazing. Of course it got me out into the garden to tidy up and I was so happy to find little shoots peeking up at me. My thoughts are well and truly into Spring (my favourite season) by now and crafting spring is so inspiring with the bright colours and flowers.

 

Tando do a packet of three little chipboard houses which are just adorable and I did intend to decorate just one for a show and tell post here but once I'd finished one I had to use all three.  I turned them all into little spring birdhouses just for a bit of fun and colour. I die cut a little hole in the front and used acrylic paint to add colour.  I also used a resist canvas birdie by Prima colouring him with Mr Hueys spray ink. The flags are simply pieces of coloured washi tape doubled over a piece of thread then cut into triangles.

 

 

The two smaller ones are made in the same way but I pushed a bbq stick through the bottom so I could push them into a plant pot. I covered the roof of one with book page and used more washi tape to decorate the bottoms. The words are made using a dymo labeler.

Jaine x

Canvas Atc's.. by Gez

For sooooooo long....... I have wanted to try out the Sticky-Back Canvas Atc's by Claudine Hellmuth and I am excited to share my results with you! I wanted to throw lots of different products at these to see how they reacted.

I used the white sticky back canvas atc's and cut some plain white card for the reverse sides.. slightly smaller than the canvas.. stuck one to the other and set about fraying the edges!

 I used Distress Ink pads on the first atc and applied them with a piece of Cut n Dry foam for the background. Adding some flicks from a bottle of Paradise Pink, Tattered Angels, Glimmer Glaze (it comes with it's own brush!)

The main image is a Resist Canvas Bird by Prima.. coloured with Distress Stains in Dusty Concord & Broken China.. gotta LOVE those colours together!

This little birdie is merrily singing soooo he just had to stand on a scrap of music paper!! The word is computer generated and I think you can just see on the photograph in the background some silver acrylic circles using the paint and the lid from a bottle of Ranger's metallic paint dabber. The gorgeous little gems are by Prima (505506) Say It In Crystals

Success! I love how this Atc turned out!

    ~♥♥~

The background for the 2nd atc was created using Dylusions Ink Sprays straight from the bottle onto the canvas.. with more blobs of the Paradise Pink Glimmer Glaze.. and silver acrylic circles..

More music paper used for the flower, and gems along with another computer generated word.. I wanted all my Atc's to tie in together as a set.. same but different.. if you know what I mean!!

 ~♥♥~

I think I saved my favourite atc until the last to show you.. I had a mini brainwave amidst the chaos going on in my head! What if... I could decant some of my lovely Dr Ph Martin's Bombay Indian Inks into some of the little Mini Mister bottles with some water.... YES! It worked lovely for the background!!

Before I misted the background.. I stamped a text stamp using gel medium onto the canvas... and QUICKLY, cleaned the stamp!

I have to admit to being a little impatient waiting for the gel medium to dry & used the heat gun! Becareful, if you don't any bubbling, let it dry naturally!

    

 Time for some spraying.. (and inky fingers!)

                    

More flicking with the Glimmer Glaze! Gems & stamped circles using Jet Black Archival Ink

The heart was cut from some plain white cardstock and covered with Washi Tape and mounted onto 3D foam pads.

PHEW! Hope you are all still awake!!!

Thanks for calling today. Gez oxox

 ~♥~