Three Birds

Hi everyone! For today’s tutorial, I (Anna-Karin) was planning to make one bird, but it turned into three, all using the same colour combo, but different techniques and materials.

The tutorial is an example of three different looks using the same die, the sweet ScoreBoards Bird Bigz die by Eileen Hull. I love birds, so I wanted to make some birds to hang in my study. You could also easily make more and turn them into a cute mobile.

The first bird is a mosaic bird. I was happy to be reminded about this technique recently, when Tim Holtz used it on a tag. When I started stamping, I loved doing faux-mosaic pieces and it is a great way to use tiny scraps of paper.

Adhere Wonder Tape to mat board, and leave the red cover sheet on. Die-cut two wings and two birds from the tape covered mat board, leaving you with the pieces above. Make sure to cut the one bird in the opposite direction (adhesive side up instead of down on the die), so that you can sandwich them together. I ended up not using the beaks, but if you want to you can. (The wings on the photo are covered with tape too, but I removed the red sheet instead of the white backing sheet, which is why they aren’t red.)

Cut tiny pieces from scrap patterned papers. I used blue and yellow papers with small patterns, so that some patterns were still visible (the 6x6 in pads are perfect for this).

I also die-cut two small hearts from yellow paper. Remove the red sheet and place the heart on the body of the bird. Continue placing patterned paper pieces onto the bird, almost like building a puzzle. Sometimes I trimmed a piece a bit to make it fit.

 

When the whole bird is covered, toss embossing powder on top, pour the excess back and then heat emboss. Repeat on the second bird. The embossing powder looks as grout.

Ink the wings on the back.

Stamp words on patterned paper and cut out.

Remove the backing paper from the wings, but leave it on the flaps (it will be used to attach the wings to the body later). Place one word on each wing and fill up the rest of the space with paper pieces. Emboss as with the bodies.

Coat each piece of paper mosaic with Glossy Accents. Set aside to dry.

Glue the two bodies together and then attach the wings. Punch or pierce a hole for the string. The placement of the string and of the wings determines the angle of the bird when it is hanging. Place a pearl as an eye on each side of the bird. Here's a view of the finished bird from the top.

The next bird is a dictionary text bird, with fluffy wings and tail feathers. I used an old dictionary, and pages with the word 'fly' and 'flutter'.

Glue dictionary paper to both sides of a piece of mat board, using a glue stick. Die-cut the bird body from this.

Cut ten pieces of dictionary paper and stack them on top of each other, die-cut one of the wings from this. Repeat for the second wing, and twice for the tail (so you have ten pieces for both sides of the bird’s tail feathers). If you use thicker paper, you might need fewer pieces. You could also try using tissue paper for this step.

Ink the bird with shades of blue and yellow Distress Ink, on both sides of the bird.

Mist the dictionary paper with a mix of Broken China reinker, Perfect Pearls and water.

Stack the ten pieces together to form a wing and crunch them up. Leave to dry. When dry, smear some Distress Stickles Rock Candy here and there on the wings.

Coat the bird with Distress Stickles Rock Candy, on both sides.

Ink the beak pieces with yellow ink and glue to the bird. Tear the tail feathers off where the tail of the bird starts and staple a stack of tail feathers on each side of the tail. Staple the wings to each side of the bird and add pearls as eyes.

A view of the finished bird from above. Punch a hole for the string. My bird was leaning too much to the back after I punched the hole, so I put a charm at the front to give it some weight. This step fixed the problem.

The last bird is made from the clear packaging that my Bird die came in, and coloured with alcohol inks.

Die-cut a bird and two wings from clear packaging.

Colour the bird with alcohol inks, I used two shades of blue and two shades of yellow for the body, and blue for the wings.

Stamp the bird with a swirl pattern and stamp two small sentiments on patterned paper.

Dry emboss the wings with the Regal Flourishes folder.

I found a little piece of scrap metallic mesh on my desk, and cut two wings from this too.

Glue the sentiments to the wings. Stack the clear and metallic wings together and staple to the body of the bird, on each side of the bird.

Add a pearl on each side for the eyes.

If you don't want to make 3D birds, you can leave out the one wing and glue the bird to a card or a layout.

I hope you enjoyed this long tutorial! Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Eileen Hull Sizzix ScoreBoards Die - Bird Tim Holtz Sizzix Texture Fades Embossing Folders: Damask & Regal Flourishes Sizzix Movers & Shapers Magnetic Die Set 2PK - Hearts Set Sizzix Little Sizzles - 6" x 13" Mat Board Pack, 6 White Sheets

InLinkz.com

Surfaces: plastic packaging, old dictionary paper, Making Memories metallic mesh, scraps of patterned papers 

Ink: Ranger Archival Ink- Jet Black; Tim Holtz Distress Ink- Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Sqeezed Lemonade; Tim Holtz Distress Ink Reinker- Broken China

Alcohol Ink: Pool, Sailboat Blue, Butterscotch, Sunshine Yellow

Stamps: Hero Arts: Magical Background CG211, Printer’s Lowercase LL762; Stamper’s Anonymous Tim Holtz Odds and Ends CMS100

Embellishments: Tim Holtz  Idea-ology Word Sticks; black adhesive pearls; twine or jute

Adhesive: Wonder Tape 8 x 10 sheet, Glossy Accents, glue stick

Tools: Tim Holtz Idea-ology Tiny Attacher; heat tool; ink applicator 

Other: Ranger Perfect Pearls powder; Tim Holtz Distress Stickles- Rock Candy