Love Birds – Mixed Media Monthly Challenge February – Tutorial

This month’s Mixed Media Monthly Challenge has the theme of Love.  When I saw the photo inspiration the phrase “a right pair of love birds” popped into my head, so I took this as a “sign” and that will be the topic of my project – Love Birds.

For this challenge I am going to make a mixed media page in my 8″ x 8″ journal.  I started by masking off the left hand side where the ring binding is.

The Rainbow Background

Using a Ranger mini ink blending tool I applied Candied Apple Distress Oxide Ink to the top left corner of the page.  Then I added Salty Ocean Distress Oxide Ink to the bottom right hand corner.

Finally I used Fossilized Amber between the other two colours, blending it over the top of them a little so as to get a spectrum of colours on the page.

I took some clean water and a paint brush and splattered some little drops all over the page.  I waited a minute or two then blotted off the excess with kitchen roll.  I love the result of this technique.

Then I found a tiny star stamp (from the Lawn Fawn “Monster Mash” set) and starting with the Candied Apple ink I stamped little stars over the top of the red area, moving down a little into the yellow.  I did the same thing with the Salty Ocean, stamping stars on the blue area and up a little.  Finally I added a few strs in Fossilized Amber to the middle area.  Although I am using the same ink as the background, the stars do show up nicely.

I stamped some faux stitching around the edge using Versamark Onyx Black pigment ink.

The Word “Love”

I cut out the letters of LOVE from a cream on white floral card, from Kanban’s Metallic collection.  I used the Mini Alphabet Board by We Are Memory Keepers to do this – I have written a review of this fun tool here – We Are Memory Keepers Mini Alphabet Board review.

I add a little Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink to the edges of the letters.

I fixed the letters to the journal page with Ranger Multi Medium Matte.  I brushed more Medium around the edges of the letters to ensure they are sealed down.

Then I took a Pink Carmine Big Brush Pitt Marker from Faber-Castell and outlined the letters. I smudged it with my finger as I went along, aiming for a fuzzy, random look.

The Love Birds

I just love the Tim Holtz Crazy Birds rubber stamps by Stampers Anonymous. I stamped two goofy looking birds with Rich Cocoa Memento Ink onto Neenah white card and coloured them with Copics and Spectrum Noir alcohol markers.  I added a little Sakura Gelly Roll Glaze pen to their eyes.

I fixed the love birds to the page using Ranger Multi Medium Matte and then added more Medium over the top of them to seal them down.

I used a little Phthalo Blue Big Brush Pitt Marker under the birds, as abit of ground.  Again I smudged this with my finger.

Little Details

The little bunch of flowers is three pink flower shaped sequins with tiny pink jewels in the middle.  I cut a tiny slot either side of the blue bird’s beak then threaded some green rat-tail cord through so it looks as if he is holding the flower stems..  If I had thought of it earlier, I could have stuck his beak over the threads.

I found some shiny red hearts in my embellishment box and scattered a few around the top of the page… ah, love!

Check out the tutorial on my Mixed Media Monthly Challenge entry for January 2018

Here are links to some of the products used on CraftStash.co.uk and Amazon.com.  If you purchase from one of these links, the retailer will pay me a small commission for sending custom their way. This is at no extra cost to you! Thank you.

Supplies on CraftStash.co.uk

         

Tim Holts Crazy Birds Stamps on Amazon.com