Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Little Birdies - Guest Design for Linnie Blooms!

Hi Everyone!! Thank you so much for stopping by to see my second guest design for Linnie Blooms!! Once again I adored using the canvas shapes!!  If you haven't had a chance to browse through the Linnie Blooms store, please click on the link and take a look!  You can also 'Like' the facebook page  or visit the design team Pintrest page for some great ideas!


This was SUPER fun to make!!  I wanted to make something bright and cheery and I found the colors of the Simple Stories I Heart Summer paper to scream out, 'use me today!'   The bird shapes totally inspired me to color them to match!  Playing around with the shapes, I folded the 'sunshine' shape down and thought it looked like a nest ... and voila, the fun begins!! 


I grabbed a fun 12x12 canvas and painted the edges teal.  Next, cutting down the paper to fit into the teal 'frame" I made a cutting mistake on the big paper, so I was scrambling to patch up my hole!! 
 Normally, it would have been 'go with the flow' and would have left it and called it a happy mistake. But I salvaged the scraps of paper left over from another page that had already used and the hole was fixed!  In the end, you don't even notice it . . . that much! Just be careful when you are cutting that you aren't watching something really good on TV . . .

 Then came the REALLY fun part!  Playing with the canvas shapes!!  
 The nest is painted with brown, cream and yellow ocre acrylic paint.  Use a little brush with little strokes to look like the grass and twigs you might find in nest!  And the great thing about making these on canvas is that you can keep layering until you get the look that you like.  The final nests that I made are very thick!  
After the paint dried, I took out some brown embroidery thread.  Now, separating the strands was SO frustrating. How do people do that without pulling their hair out??  I don't know, so I ended up just using it all together and luckily it worked! (Threading the needle was a little challenging!)

I used Faber-Castell Gelatos to color the canvas birds.  It spreads on the canvas like butter. Use a brush with a little bit of water to spread it around.  Pick a couple of your favorite stencils to add detail to the birds! 
 
  Now, for the tree.  Luckily, I just had been to the Binders Art store here in Atlanta before I made this piece.  They always wrap my neocolor crayons up in a long brown bag. I can't tell you how many of these bags I have cut and colored!  This is another one! But whatever supply of brown paper you have, cut out a shape that resembles a tree.  Using the new brown neocolor, I colored  the wrinkles in the paper to give dimension.  When it is glued down, actually scrunch the paper up and the wrinkles stand up and aren't flat on the canvas.


  
Now, for some leaves . . . cut random green paper in to random leaf sizes!  Layer them onto the top of the tree starting with the bigger ones on the bottom.  When you are gluing down the smaller leaves, only glue one side down and leave the tips up.  This is just another way to create texture and dimension to the project! 

Use pens to highlight edges and doodle and add some rub-ons for more texture.  (I don't have picture of the doodle or white pen.  But I highly recommend you find a doodle and a white pen that work for you!)
  
Glue down the birds in their new homes!! 

I also had a quote that I have been wanting to use.  These birds look they are in love, some good ole' summer loving.  Now, in the picture of this project it looks as if there is a lot of text in the background.  But honestly, when you see the real thing, the black quote stands out way more than the rest of the paper background! 






Thank you for visiting today!! I hope you find something that inspires you today and you put it down on canvas.  I am always surprised just how getting something down makes me feel so great!! It is a rush - and I LOVE it!!  Thank you to Linda Barutha for giving me the chance to design for Linnie Blooms using her new products!!

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