A Small Bird Made A Cosy Nest Within My Heart – More Than Words November 2024 Challenge

Happy New Month!

Here’s to a creative November!  It is getting towards the busiest part of the year and also the fastest – how quickly time flies from here on till the end of the year!  I am trying to carve out some arting time to keep me sane during this crazy time. Yes I am STILL on crutches and for extra fun, my back has seized up and I can’t sit down!  Anyway, needs must and all that… let’s get to the arting!

Today’s Art . . .

As it is the very first day of the month, I am excited to share my DT inspiration project for November at More Than Words with you.  This challenge is also the 200th challenge at More Than Words – quite the accomplishment, I’m sure you’ll agree.  It seems like no time at all since we celebrated 150 challenges!

This month’s challenge is all about nurture and gathering together as quite a lot of us do at this time of the year.  Are you familiar with the saying “birds of a feather gather together“?  Or perhaps you know it as “birds of a feather flock together“?   My page is very much influenced by the birds in the nest and that feeling of being cosy together.

I am still using my junk journal made from packaging – only one more page left for this year and then it will be complete!   For this page I used lots of little paper squares and collaged them on the background.  You can see all the squares newly adhered to the page in the photo below along with all the other potential elements I wanted to add to the page (none of the leaves made it to the page!)  I have had an envelope full of all these little squares of various handmade papers in these neutral shades for such a long time – I’m talking years – that I can no longer remember where they came from LOL.  They were already cut into squares and at some point I stuffed them into an envelope because they were just loose in a drawer and I didn’t want them to get damaged or accidentally thrown out.  They are very interesting, some are like pieces of very thin wood veneer, others are like leather textured paper, others are very textured handmade paper and others are glittered.  I thought it was high time I used some of them at least (there are plenty more!)

I also spent some time die cutting and colouring a bunch of feathers and leaves and saved some leftovers from other projects.  The leaves on the far right were actually cut from a masterboard I made to celebrate MTW 150th challenge.  Most of the masterboard was made into ATCs at the time but there were small off-cuts left over that I didn’t want to throw away, so I used them to cut the leaves.  I found this gel printed circle which again, has been in my stash for a few years, and I thought it would make a nice background for the bird lady and would match the neutral colours of my background collage. The leaves didn’t make it onto my page but I used all the feathers.

After the collage was dry, I grunged it up with some Distress pearlescent crayons in Unravelled and Fallen Acorn.  I’ll be sad when these are gone as they have long been a seasonal product but are now a discontinued product never to return. 🙁

Speaking of seasonal products, I also used a few different colours of Distress Mica Stain which you can see shining on the photo above.  I used Shiny Bauble ( a lovely bright blue) and Holly Branch (green), both of which are considered Christmas seasonal colours but don’t have to be.  I also found some of these already diecut little birds and coloured them to match my page.

I used some Tim Holtz Clipping Stickers to add some words to my page. I love these stickers,they are so random and yet I can usually find something to work on my pages.  I love this Lynne Perrella stamp, it’s one of my favourites, and I love that she’s holding the bird and hugging it to her chest – and of course, no crazy bird lady would be complete without a bird perched on her head!

I hope you can join us this month, it’s a fun theme, and of course there’s a great prize to win from ArtStacks..

Let me know what you think in the comments below.   As always, thanks for reading and Happy Journalling!Ingredients
recycled brown paper packaging, glue, gel printed background, handmade paper squares, Sizzix dies: Feathery, Silhouette Birds, Distress:  inks, mica stain, crayons, Idea-ology clipping stickers, Paperartsy stamp:  LPC049, Stazon ink, black pen,

Challenges

More Than Words – November 2024 Challenge – don’t forget you have the chance to win some fabulous art papers from @ArtStacksDesigns!  Hope you can join us this month!