Money Bird by Emma

Hi everyone, Emma here and it's time for me to share my first piece of this month. For this piece I decided to work on wood and and use the gorgeous Money Bird stamp from Neil Walker. As always, I really hope you love what I made and I've taken lots of photos to show all the detail...

...and here's what I used and how I created this piece. To begin with I chose to use a block of wood, approximately 10 x 21cm in size. I primed the wood with Gesso and then added some texture onto the wood using a stencil that I have in my stash and some Paperartsy Grunge Paste. Once the paste was dry, I added the colour using Adirondack Paint Dabbers and then highlighted the paste with some Treasure Gold Gilding Wax. 

A quick blast with the heat gun to dry everything super quick because I'm very impatient and can't wait before I then added some Tissue Tape all around the sides of the block of wood. Once that is all finished, I'm then ready to add my layers of stamping.

I used the Dots Background stamp and stamped this directly onto the wood with white acrylic paint and used the Calligraphic Mat 11 and stamped the script using black Archival Ink. Another blast of heat and then I'm ready to stamp the Money Bird.

First, I stamped the image of the bird onto the painted wood with black Archival Ink. I then stamped three separate images of the bird onto watercolour card and coloured these using Distress Marker Pens.

Once happy with the shading, I cut each of the layers out but cutting away sections so that I could decoupage the bird onto my wood. I layered each of the sections using silicone glue and added highlights onto the tail feathers and plume, using a white gel pen. I also used the gel pen to colour in the flowers onto the image that I stamped onto the wood.

Next, I made some handmade paper flowers using the Sizzix/Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die for the roses and also I used some paper flowers in my stash to create the other flower. I sprayed all the separate flower pieces with Dylusions Ink Sprays in Vibrant Turquoise and Fresh Lime and then made them into dimensional blooms. I spritzed each of the blooms with the Perfect Copper Perfect Pearls mist.

Once the flowers were completely dry, I added them to my wooded block together with some seam binding that I dyed using Distress Stains. 

To complete my piece, I added an Idea-ology Word Band, some Film Strip Ribbon and some pins and wooden embellishments that I had in my stash. Finally, I used some cotton reel spools, which I painted using the same colours as I used on my wooden block and added these as feet.

So, that's it from me for today and thank you so much for taking the time to visit to see what I've created. I'm really looking forward to reading all your comments.

I'll be back later this month with another piece and don't forget we have a fabulous challenge throughout June and we would love you to join in. The challenge is all about Makes For Men and just click HERE for all the details.

See you all again soon...bye for now!

Emma x