Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep! - Put a Bird On It...at Stamps and Stencils

Hi everyone, it's time for the very talented Toni to set our challenge over at Stamps and Stencils this month. Without further ado here's what she has to say about it. 

'One of the joys, at this time of year, is to wake up to the glorious sound of birdsong. The challenge this month is in celebration of our fine, feathered, friends. We would love to see your mixed media projects, that include at least one bird. Whether it's a  journal spread, an assemblage or card, just make sure that a little dickie bird or birds, feature somewhere. Please don't forget to include stamping, or stenciling or even both! Can't wait to see your creations!'

When I was looking around for ideas and inspiration I came across the artwork of  Karyn Fendley please follow this link Inspiration from a Karyn Fendley print 'Song Bird 1', I loved the red and cream and the idea of cutting my own stencil/mask to try and recreate this seemed like a good challenge for me. This is my very amateur take on it. 

To start, I used a copyright free image to cut my stencil with the idea that I would mask areas off before I painted out areas. I glued some watercolour paper to an 8 x 8 plywood panel.

First coat of vanilla, yellow submarine and tangerine twist fresco paints roughly blended. I wanted to start light and build up lots of layers.

Stenciling and stamping in archival ink and paint, quite liked this stage but I couldn't be deviated from my original plan.

I know, even more layers...the idea being that whatever sections were visible there would be detail

Then to bring it all together, I used london bus over the whole area which is translucent. 

Some metallic red foil and gold embossing and I think it takes on an almost oriental look 

Next masking fluid using the stencil, once dry a slightly watered down coat of vanilla and chalk fresco paint, a couple of coats of this as I wanted to be able to see the underlying detail.

I used a maskaway eraser to reveal the quirky tree and bird. 

Not bad for a first attempt at several techniques?

Please hop across and see what my other teamies have created for you, they are all so talented!  I hope you'll be inspired to join in with this months challenge and thanks for stopping by.