The Birdhouses!

Summertime is here and so are the birds!! Our wonderful neighbor has several birdfeeders in her backyard so we get to see a TON of different and exciting birds in our yard!  (We are thinking we should get her some birdseed because we get  to see so many!!)  Anyway, I was watching the birds pop in and out of the trees yesterday and thought that perhaps we should get some birdhouses! My girls thought they would live here and eat there!! LOL!  Anyway, here is my whimsical birdhouse tree!! I hope you like it - I had SO much fun putting her together!!

For Mother's Day my husband and girls went to Blick's and picked up some fun looking paints.  I think they are mainly meant for glass, but you can use them for mixed media too. So I brushed on a few colors and loved them!!  These paints are transparent, but really vibrant!! They are made by Pebeo, and are called Prisme and Vitrail.  I also used the green Vitrail through a stencil to make the green 'grasses' at the bottom! After they were dry, I sealed up the background with matte medium because I wasn't sure about how they would handle me working on top of them ... I will have to try that next time!

Then I started ripping up some brown paper bags to make the tree and used gel medium to glue it to the canvas. 

Then the leaves ... I didn't want the leaves to come off of the canvas and fight with the birdhouses.  I just wanted the leaves to fade into the background.  So out came my messy gelli plate to make some tissue paper background leaves ... Titan buff for the background and a couple of greens through a stencil! I do love my gelli plate!

I ripped up the tissue paper into little pieces and used matte medium to stick them down onto the canvas!

I think they really look like leaves!!

Then I had some fun creating a selection of birdhouses! I used little pieces of wood, burlap and some straw-like pieces that I had in containers on my desk!

 

I used twine to 'hang' the birdhouses from the tree!

 I started doodling and shading.  Then I found a perfect quote about home! I printed it on my printer onto some tissue paper and used matte medium to stick it down! What I love about using the tissue paper is that it is semi-transparent and it blends into the background!

After I finished highlighting around the tree, it needed something else.  So I searched through my Goodwill frame collection and found this older wooded frame.  It fit the canvas perfectly.  So, I attached the canvas and voila, the birdhouses are complete!!  

Thank you so much for stopping by today! I really hope that you enjoy this whimsical project as much as I enjoyed creating it!! - Karen