Thursday 4 April 2013

Bird Brain!

Michelle's second project for the Paperartsy blog this week, was decorating a box blank to hold seeds for her garden.

I didn't have any boxes of a similar size to Michelle, but did find this....
not sure what it held once upon a time, I "rescued" it from the clearing out at mum and dad's house (yes, it's still ongoing...)
 Painted it white first, then used tinned peas on the edges and top, and stamped the little birds in grasses all round the edges in black archival ink.
 The lid of the box, I painted with mixtures of sky/south pacific, limelight/hyde park/guacamole
 then stamped a flourish and text stamp on the top part of the lid in cobalt archival
Stamped two birds on tissue paper and stuck to the lid with matt multi medium (I found some by Liquitex in a box of stash, that I didn't know I had, and which is nice and runny). I sponged over the edges of the tissue with some paint as it hadn't totally disappeared (didn't tear close enough, I think, to the birds)

I over-stamped the birds and the bottom of the lid, with the larger birds in field grasses.

This was a fun, if quite messy way to spend the afternoon....!

16 comments:

Gabrielle said...

Simply fabulous! Great project xxx

Lin said...

Love your box Helen looks like you did have fun afternoon...I just love all those colours together!!

sam21ski said...

Wow, fabulous.

I can't believe how much the box alters when you add those fab bird images, they really transform it.

Great project

Sam xx

Anonymous said...

Love it, the colours really are fab.

Craft Addicts - Tracy Evans said...

Lovely Helen, the birds look gorgeous standing against your painty background. Tracy x

Words and Pictures said...

Gorgeous take on Michelle's inspiration... love the colours, and those stamps are just fab!
Alison x

Christine said...

why did you use tinned peas,did you eat the peas first? lol
Bishopsmate

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Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

Gorgeous use of that box. It really IS a secret garden in a box.

Michelle Webb said...

It's brilliant Helen, well done you for rescuing it. Now it's a fab box that you've decorated. I wonder what you're going to put in it? Have fun and thank you for taking part and your comments. Michelle x

Artyjen said...

Love the altered box ;)
xoxo Sioux

Kay Carley said...

This looks absolutely fabulous Helen :) xx

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Gillian .... said...

Looks fantastic Helen, those stamps and colours were just perfect for each other. x

Virginia said...

Oh that's lovely Helen!

Carmen said...

I love those bird stamps, I think I just might come home with a few stamps on Sunday and I will blame you totally!

Gorgeous colours and I too have discovered a bottle of that liquitex stuff in my shed tidy up this week. Been playing with it - had to Google what it was for at first!