Birds and Nests...It's Spring!

I had the best time yesterday afternoon.  I played with gesso, paint, background paper and a Sizzix die.   

These three photos are of my bird nest process. I took a piece of Scrapbook paper and stenciled several colors of brown, tan, cream.  I used a piece of a metal grill rack as my first stencil. The metal is in a diamond design. I turned is in several directions using different shades of paint.  I also used a stencil that looked like camouflage that I bought at Wal-Mart. It was part of a set of six or eight small stencils.  After I had all the browns and tans I went back over the whole page with a bit of olive green.  

Next I cut my page into strips with my trusty 15 year old deckle scissors. I have sure gotten my money's worth out of those little scissors.  I wove the strips and then attached them to a piece of sticky paper so it would stay together when I cut it into a nest shape. I added thin bits of the same paper around the top of the nest because it looked too much like a bowl instead of a nest. 

I took a credit card blank that had a perforated edge and spread gesso with it to make lines on the background.  I used homemade Salty Ocean spray paint (Distressed reinker, matte medium and water) and let it drip over the page filling in some of the line. I repeated that with yellow spray paint that I can no longer remember how I made it. 

The branches are made from card stock and stenciled with brown and tan similar to how I did the nest. 

I used a gelli print that I made last year and a Sizzix die to make the birds. I trimmed their wings so I could have a bit of pink showing. Cobalt blue and sepia Archival inks were used to shade the edges of the birds, branches and nest.  The leaves are a The Crafter's Workshop stencil and olive green Archival ink. 

I am linking to: Paint Party Friday, Mixed Media Monthly Challenge, Art Journal Every Day