Art Sisters - AOTM

The time has come to complete my monthly creation for the Art Sisters Yahoo Group Art of the Month project. This month I post to Jacky and Samm posts to me ... both amazing artists so take the time to visit their blogs. I always look forward to when the end of the month comes near, so I get to see what amazing creations everyone on the group has made. I was also happy to find that Jacky loves birds, nature, fabric, collage and all colours, which allowed me free reign for my creation this month.

This time I decided to alter the cover of a notebook that I'd bought recently at the Scrapbooks Etc Trash & Treasure. The cover was burgundy, which I quite liked, but you can't see any of it on the end product. I started with cheesecloth glued onto the cover, then a serviette over the top of that so there was a fabric texture. I coloured the serviette with Olive and Creme de Cocoa glimmer mists and found it was too dark, so added another nest from the serviette with a piece of white paper underneath so you could actually see the detail. I used Patina and Spanish Copper Rub 'n' Buff around the edges as well as copper foil tape and german scrap along the bottom.

The chipboard bird is covered with paper from an English / Japanese dictionary with the definition of bird. It has been coloured with Walnut Ink, coated with crackle medium and once dry Espresso alcohol inks to accentuate the cracks. The microscope slide has a feather stuck between the two pieces of glass, again with copper foil tape and aged with Patina & Spanish Copper Rub 'n' Buff, held in place with rusty wire. I was a little disappointed that my microscope slide cracked, but then felt the "rustic-ness" of the broken glass added to the piece.

It'll be in the mail this week to Jacky, so I hope she likes it.

"Out of difficulties grow miracles."
~Jean de La Bruyère, 1645-1696, French Writer~