That Bird Piece

On my WOYWW desk, I showed you some of the makings of the piece for this week's DragonsDream Tag It On challenge, which went live a few minutes ago (as I write, that is!!!) It is also to be entered into Simon Says Stamp and Show ... a Lord of Tim Holtz technique. Well, there are a few here but the featured one is down the off-centre... the letters mounted on his new, thicker grungeboard  punched pieces, painted, sanded and distressed. I also want to enter it into Hels Sheridan's Sunday Stampers special 150th challenge, which is "All you need is Love". So where is this piece then??? Ta da...

 I started with one of my new 8"x8" frames, and distressed it using eco paint/pva sandwich in copper and pistachio - a fab combination... These frames are empty, and I wanted a printers' tray look, so I cut some strips from thick card and stuck them where I wanted them - enough space for a TH size tag and the rest...

I covered the background with a piece of Thorndon Hall, and a scrap of TH lost and found... Some time ago, I bought some Stamp in the Hand stamps from Stamp Addicts, in one of their fabuloso sales and I dug them out for this project. There is a cute ickle birdy nest as well as bird stamps, but I only used the wren, as it happens. The sentiment, which is stamped on to the tag is a list of birds, and one of them is a chickadee. Now that won't mean diddly squat to you, but my daddy used to call me that, and I thought it was a made-up pet name all these years... now I know it is an ickle bird!! Awww (oh shut up , Gaywood and get on with the tale of the piece..!!)

Many of you will know I am just besotted with this TH birdcage die, and here it is again, in different livery this time... I used a couple of TH eps and a couple of Moonglow gold ones... the little bird is the smaller die cut one from the TH movers and shapers set. A keyhole and tiny lock make the cage look as if it has a door, I think. The button and swivel clasp are also TH. The wool is from my stash, and is a perfect colour and texture for the piece...

I LOVE, LOVE this letter technique (well Hels wanted us to do stuff we LOVE, eh!!?) and had great fun making the letters look distressed, using vintage photo and victorian velvet inks... I also sprayed with a fast-becoming-fave perfect pearl mist, in forever violet colour, which gives the black letters a wonderfully burnished glow...

And here is that lovely birdy... with his nest... As I said, I stamped the nest from the set, then decoupaged a bit of it, to give it dimension, but as I was popping the letters from their backing, I noticed that some of the "holes" (if you see what I mean!!??) were egg-shaped!! So I painted and sprayed them, for the birdy to hatch!!! As for him, he is covered in the same eps as the cage, and then stamped, whilst hot, using the hair of the dreamy lady on Judikins Klim Ladies cube - another fave of mine... I think I have too many of those faves!!!

A grungy rosette completes the decs, stamped in the middle and embossed to stand proud and look like a pebble (cos I don't have any of them...) A TH wing, and a key finish off this project, which was such fun to make... Thanks for looking, and coming back (those of you who actually DID come back!!! tee hee)

I have a couple of other things on the go, so off to play with them, and post at least one of them later...

Love and light

Frankie

xx