Bird Friends Art Journal Page

Hello stampers! I hope you are well and that you have had a beautiful Easter. The Easter bunny hid eggs twice in the forest, which was very popular. We also has sunny weather, but now it is snowing.

We have a Layer It theme at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog this week. I hope you will join us! Since it is the first Monday of a new month, the team is showcasing products by a specific designer and this week it is Tim Holtz. You can find Tim's fantastic range of products here. You don't have to use Tim's products to join, but it is always fun if you do.

We also have a new guest designer and during April the wonderful Autumn Clark will be joining us. I hope you will stop by her beautiful blog Sew Paper Paint and see what she has created for you.

I made an art journal page this week, creating layers with paint, ink, stamping, and stenciling. Since I don't want to add too much bulk to my art journals, I often create layers which are fairly flat, but still look layered. It is also lots of fun to build up a background like this. The first to sentiments comes from Simon Says Stamp So Far So Good. I thought it looked like the birds were chatting to each other.

I started with a page in my Small Creative Flip Journal, which had already been coated with gesso. I had also painted leftover paints on the page after a previous project.

Stamp the page with the alphabet background stamp from Tim's Schooldesk set. 

Continue with two of the stamps from the Ultimate Grunge set. I used Simon Says Stamp High Dive ink here.

Mix a little Squeezed Lemonade into Distress Texture Paste and apply through the Gradient Dot stencil using a palette knife. 

Apply a little Distress Oxide ink to the background with a blending brush.

Draw a border with a Tombow Marker and splatter some white paint on the background.

I wanted even more texture an stamped the Simon Says Stamp Crackle Background on the background with two shades of Distress Oxide ink.

Die cut Tim's Feathered Friends from heavystock cardstock.

I inked my birds to resemble a blue tit and a great tit, which are favorite birds in our house.

Add more color with Distress Oxide ink, but just a little. I used blending brushes to get additional texture.

Stamp with the Crackle Background to get a feathered look.

When I was almost finished, I decided to add just a little bit of black stamping too, using the date stamp from Ultimate Grunge and one of the stamps from the Mini Glitch set.

You can add color to some of the dots, for variation.

Here's the blue tit. The combination of the transparent Distress Ink and just a little opaque Distress Oxide ink gives an interesting look. It is like the oxide ink shines.

I forgot to add a white dot to the eye of the great tit and noticed it when taking the photos. I have done that now. It makes the eye look more alive. The branch was die cut with Simon Says Stamp Detailed Leaf Cluster from Simon Says Stamp Kraft Woodgrain cardstock and inked slightly.

Ink, paint, stamping and stenciling adds layers and depth, without adding bulk.

These sentiments are from Tim's Tiny Text stamp set. I can almost always find a sentiment that fits on that set.

Here you can also see some of the subtle texture from the oxide ink, below the leaf to the left.

I hope you will join us this week in our Layer It challenge. You have a chance to win a $25 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

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 stop by here today! 

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.