Birds In The Leafless Trees Are Singing

Hello everyone, happy Tuesday!  I hope you are having a good week so far.  It’s very cold here and I have joined the kittens in hibernation mode!

today’s art . . .

Today’s art is another journal page for Day 9 Art Every Day Month and for the current theme over on Art Journal Journey which is All kinds of Weather, and was chosen by this month’s lovely host, Chris from PearShapedCrafting.

It was inspired by all the piles of Harris Tweed that are currently surrounding me as I sort through useful sized pieces to make that throw I mentioned back in September.  I hadn’t done much about it since then but it’s really cold now and the heating is still not working, so a lovely tweedy throw sounds like a good idea about now.

Some of the teeny tiny pieces are no good for that but I remembered that I had this Sizzix bird die and the cover image is a Tweedy bird (I was so tempted to call this post “A Tweedy Bird” btw but I will save that for another day) so I got the die out and did some cutting.  It’s not a great thing to do with this kind of Tweed as all the tiny little woollen fibres get everywhere when it is cut – all over the die, all over the table, all over me, up my nose, in my eyes, in my mouth, everywhere!  As soon as I was done, I had to drag out the vacuum cleaner and try to get rid of the worst of it.  Meanwhile I prepared my background by adding scrunched up tissue paper to my journal page…

Once it was dry, I painted it with a Light Blue Neocolor II and some water to make it look like an icy winter blue sky.

Then I used another Sizzix die to cut some tree branches using an old amazon box, and glued them down to the page.

Then I added the birds to sit in the branches of the leafless trees. I thought about adding snow to the branches but decided the weather was too cold for snow so left them alone except to add some shading with a Stabilo.

The birds are loosely stitched together just to hold all the pieces in place and then glued to the page. The gold beads were stitched in place for the eyes. This one’s legs are wonky (or maybe he’s dancing) but that just adds to his charm, right?

I wrote out the words of the poem onto three pieces of white card and placed them on the page.  The poem Birds in the leafless trees are singing by Louis Untermeyer (1885-1977) is as follows.

The winter winds were swift and stinging,
The day was growing old and dark;
And yet within the icy park
Birds in the leafless trees were singing.

Somehow the cold was not so clinging,
And homing people stopped to stare
At all the brave hearts clustered there —
Birds in the leafless trees! And singing!

Yes, Spring is sweet with new songs ringing,
And Summer’s pageant moves all men;
But my heart leaps to Winter when
Birds in the leafless trees are singing.

t stands for . . .

…these tea themed gift ideas I found in the supermarket last week.  I had two of them in my trolley before I even realised it.  I put them back though as I decided to was far too early to be thinking about the dreaded C word or shopping for gifts, but I’m sure I will regret this and they will probably be gone when I want them!

If you missed any November AEDM posts so far, check them out in the slider below.

Let me know what you think in the comments.   As always, thanks for reading!Ingredients
my handmade journal, watercolour paper, black pen, white card, glue, matte medium, tissue paper, black stabilo all, Neocolor IIs, Sizzix bird bigz die, Harris Tweed, Sizzix bigz branch die, amazon box cardboard, gold beads for eyes, thread,

Challenges

Art Journal Journey – All Kinds of Weather November Challenge

Altered Book Lover – T Stands for – tea-related gift ideas

Art Every Day Month – Day 9  
LeighSBDesigns Art Stamps – Falling into Winter Hop+Challenge – November 9th

Funkie Junkie Challenge Blog – Living Things – November challenge
Creative Artiste – Challenge #77 – see ingredients for list of products used

You might also like these November posts days 1-8 . . .

October Journal Flip-Through

08
Nov

A Wind Has Blown The Rain Away

07
Nov

And Yet I Cannot Go

06
Nov

The Winter Hare

05
Nov

Time Is A Brisk Wind, For Each Hour It Brings Something New

04
Nov

A Secret Tryst, Woyww, and Weekly Catch-up

03
Nov

Coffee And Snow In Edinburgh

02
Nov

Wear Gratitude Like A Cloak

01
Nov