Barb's Birds and Ivy

Hi Everyone! Barb here with a piece that I worked on while thinking of Earth Day. In celebration thereof, I decided to do a little up-cycling and use a couple of pages from an old lettering handbook that belonged to my Dad (a commercial artist back in the day when signs were painted by hand and not chunked together on a computer).

I began by putting the pages on a canvas panel with Mod Podge. After letting it dry overnight, I distressed it by using a wash of watered down white acrylic paint, sponged on inks, splattered paint and spritzed on sprays.

For the ivy frame I began with a bright green. I often go brighter and bolder on the initial paint because I know I'm going to abuse it into submission with lots of distressing. It's easy to subdue a color, but not as easy to make it brighter. Many have been the times when I've finished something and wish the color had a little more pop. Generally, the reason it doesn't is because I began it with a too subtle color.

Of course, once it was dry, I gave it all sorts of abuse. I sponged, stamped, splattered, wiped, sanded, splattered and sponged some more. I don't have a recipe for this stuff; I just play until it works for me. To bring out the color of the ivy I used StazOn Studio Glaze.

For the birdhouse and larger flying bird, I used Ranger Distress Crackle paints - Vintage Photo brown for the birdhouse and Clear Rock Candy for the bird (which I first primed with a coat of white gesso).

Once the crackle paints were completely dry, scrubbed on ink with a sponge and splattered and spritzed them as well.

Because I wanted the frame to be on top of the birdhouse and the smaller birds on branches, I used left over bits and pieces (the in between stuff) of Gina's Designs chipboard as spacers. See? More up-cycling! Plus, since it was the same material, the spacing was perfect. The frame is set apart and gives a nice shadow box effect to the whole piece.

Thanks for looking and happy crafting!

Gina's Designs Used

Birds Shape Set

Birdwatching Shape Set

Collage Frame Birds & Ivy

For the Birds

Other Items Used

Acrylic Paint

Ranger Distress Crackle Paint

irRESISTibles spray

Mod Podge

StazOn inks

StazOn Studio Glaze

Music rubber stamp manufacturer is unknown

9 x 12 canvas panel