Winter Bird Tutorial

Hi everyone! I hope you had a fun weekend! We were busy with lots of fun stuff: a price-giving ceremony for a sports competition where we also got to meet a famous athlete, a soccer game (luckily without rain or snow!), some baking, bits of crafting and even a short visit to a second-hand store.

At the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog we have a Recycle challenge this week. I hope you will join us! And don't miss the project by our November guest designer Nikki Acton with her blog Addicted to Art.

I always enjoy recycle challenges, since it is such fun to use unusual surfaces and lots of bits and pieces. For my winter bird tag, I used plastic packaging, an old pair of jeans, a paper doily, a clothes tag, tiny bits of felt and a mix of pieces from a scrap box. I found an icecream box with scrap pieces from years ago, from projects I made in South Africa. There were even some items from my earliest papercrafting days. I was happy to find the doilies which I remember buying in a shop probably thirteen years ago. The clothes tag was also in that same box, and even the stamped ticket. 

Start by die cutting a tag from plastic packaging and emboss it in the Sizzix Confetti Hearts 3-D embossing folder.

Color with alcohol inks.

The bird is die cut with Tim Holtz's new Patchwork Bird die. I die cut the base from watcolor paper and the rest of the pieces from tiny left-over pieces of felt, burlap and the leg from an old pair of jeans. I happened to find a bag with scrap fabric from when I was a teenager and the jeans leg came from a pair of jeans that I cut off to turn them into shorts. There were also a lot of pieces that I meant to use for scrunchies from the days when I used to make a ton of scrunchies. It is fun to see that they are in fashion again.

Glue the pieces to the bird.

Here are some of the scrap items I picked out to use. I didn't use all of them, but most.

The clothes tag was stamped with snowflakes and Salty Ocean ink.

I stitched the bird, to give it more of a patchwork look.

Here you can see the look of the embossed and inked tag.

There is also a piece of an old book paper, another example of great recycling for craft projects. Recently, I read about the huge amount of books that are given to second-hand shops, but which are never sold, and have to be thrown away. I am happy to use some of them in my art instead.

The ticket was stamped with Tim's Odds & Ends set, which is still a favorite set of mine, even though I stamped this particular ticket years ago.

Joy was die cut from Simon Says Stamp Glitter Paper with the Joyful Frame die. I also used a piece of dyed lace and some cheese cloth, and Tim's Bouquet Flowers.

Here you can see what the tag looks like on a white background. You can also skip coloring the plastic tag, and keep the background transparent.

I hope you will join us this week in our Recycle challenge. As always, you have a chance to win a $50 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until next Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Don't forget to follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff daily. 

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog today!  

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

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