Bird Crazy Picture Book 1–Part 1: Distress Ink Backgrounds Step by Step

Play along with me!  I am going to make my first Bird Crazy Picture Book “the countryside”.  There will be three parts to this tutorial Part 1 (this post) is making six easy cartoon style backgrounds. Part 2 (coming soon) will be making and adding the birds.  Part 3 (coming soon) will be compiling the finished cards into a booklet.  Please watch the video to see how I do the backgrounds – I am doing a Talk and Walk through for you x

Ingredients (but use what you have)

• White stamping card
• Distress inks and ink tools
• Spare paper for inking onto
• Embossing Folder Woodgrain texture (Any)
• Small paintbrush
• Liquid pearls in pewter (optional)

Six backgrounds ready for the birds!

1 – Hillside

2 – Fence

3 – Rooftop

4 – Washing Line

5 – Barn

6 – Branch

Bird Crazy Stamps & Art Journal: On the Fence

Everyone has been going Bird Crazy lately all thanks to Tim Holtz!  Having spied the cool stamps coming soon called Crazy Things I figured that I should jump onto the band wagon quickly!  Using a prototype of a secret app I am making to pick my colours (details to follow) I used distress inks and daubers to colour in a full A4 sheet of these fellows.  I then cut them all out using the matching die set by Sizzix. Now I’ve started there is just so much more I want to do with these guys so I am giving them their own tag!   Scroll down for more photos!

Ingredients

• Bird Crazy Stamps
• Bird Crazy Dies
• Old book pages
• Distress inks
• Distress paints: picket fence and salty ocean
• Blue mica spray (homemade using Aqua Tints)
• Background stamp and Stencil by Sheena Douglass
• Spectrum Aqua pens: Bud Green and Rose Petal
• Paper wood grain strips left over from Art Journal
• Printed call outs CLICK HERE FOR FREE PDF DOWNLOAD 
• Black archival ink
• Googly eyes
• White Gel pen (Sigma)
• Black alcohol pen (spectrum noir)
• Liquid Pearls: Pewter

  GOOGLY EYES!!!

Art Journal: Life is a Cabaret

I’ve been hoping to do an art journal page using a stage for a while and I’ve used Craftwork Cards papers – as always!  I am happy with the depth of this layout, and the simplicity by going back to paper punches and scissors!

Ingredients

• Craftwork Cards 6” paper pad and die cut tickets: Bon Bon
• Distress inks: Walnut Stain and Gathered Twigs
• Faber Castell Gelatos
• Faber Castell pitt pen: Walnut
• White Gesso
• Gloss Medium
• Tim Holtz Photo Booth
• Paper punches: small flower and stamp
• Embossing folder: wood grain
• 2mm foam pads
• Liquid Pearls: Rose Gold and Ballerina
• Stickles Glitter

Art Journal: Music of the Night

Using the word “Music” as a prompt I have created this art journal entry drawing on inspiration from YouTube crafter Vicky Papaioannou https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbtWi24JfohnP-sNaVGv-LQ who created a music themed page by doing these rips but with cute piano keys behind.

The quote is from The Phantom of the Opera because of the chandelier and the music notation I copied from searching ‘victorian music scores’.

Ingredients

• Pebeo high viscosity acrylics in blues including dyna black/blue
• Distress Ink in chipped sapphire and faded jeans (old paper mixed with gesso)
• Stamps: craftwork cards
• Tim Holtz Tissue Wrap (link below)
• Gold gilding wax (cosmic shimmer)
• Ranger archival ink black
• Pebeo texture paste
• Stencil by Sheena Douglass
• Navy blue organza ribbon from craftwork cards.

Art Journal: The Rose

Using the prompt ‘raindrops on roses’ I’ve made a pretty journal spread using a shortened version of the lyric from Bette Midler’s The Rose.

Ingredients

• Papers: Craftwork Cards Cottage Garden
• Distress Inks: Tea Dye, Spun Sugar, Antique Linen, Milled Lavender, Tattered Rose
• Stamps: Craftwork Cards More Than Words and Boho, Dovecrafts alpha
• Twinkling H2Os: Pearl Red, Pearl Violet, Just Peachy
• Gilding Flakes: Artcoe ‘Autumn Rose’
• Embossing Powder: Cosmic Shimmer ‘Lapis Pearl Lustre’
• Holtz Ideaology: Plastic Fragment, Ephermera, Memo Pin, Big Chat Words
• Liquid Pearls, antique key charm, perfect medium, brad, alcohol ink misty lake, matt medium
• Cosmic Shimmer flake glue

Card Making: Country Garden

These cards were made using Cottage Garden by Craftwork Cards, matching candi, sentiments and flowers from previous bundles and distress inks: dusty concord, peacock feathers and victorian velvet.