It's a Bird!

It was a bird challenge. Johanna gave us these little wooden birds and challenged us to make something with them. My first instinct was to make something like everyone else did. Geez, I didn't want to be different, did I? What if it didn't work out, what if it WAS the same as everyone elses, what if , what if, what IF?? I'm learning to let my creations be ME. What if everyone made art like everyone else, how boring would that be? Right. So when I started to make this project, I thought, I'm gonna do what feels natural and this felt natural to me. I didn't make a sketch like Kim does for her projects, I just went with a general idea that I had. I knew I wanted to put it on/in a frame, so when I was at Wal-Mart the other day, they had these kits on clearance for $9 and this frame was in the kit. It was the perfect color I had in mind. I hit my fabric stash and came up with the plaid background fabric, so I covered the cardboard insert that came with the kit. The kit also included some tan colored felt, so I used that to pad the bird. I traced the bird twice onto the felt and cut the shapes out, cutting one a bit smaller than the other. I adhered the larger (same size) cutout right onto the wood and then adhered (with double stick tape) the smaller cutout onto the top of the other one. The reason why I made one smaller is so that when I covered the bird with fabric there wouldn't be a hard edge to pull the fabric over. The bird fabric is the fabric that came with the kit and it was perfect, too. I love the little polka dots. I put some double stick tape on top of the felt and then stretched the pink polka dot fabric over it and taped it to the back. I knew I wanted a button eye, so I got my button jar out and came up with this three-button combo. I think it's quite cute. I used a scrap of vintage cotton lace from my justjohanna special edition kit for the wing. I also used this same lace to decorate the hanging part. I was thinking I wanted to put feathers on the bird's head, but then thought that would be too obvious, so I got out my wire and fashioned some curly-cues. I also made the wire legs and feet out of a piece of wire. That was fun! I love his little feet. I attached the wire to the inside of the felt sandwich on the back of the bird with some more double-stick tape. Then I traced out another bird shape onto the felt and cut it out. I adhered this to the back of the bird to give it a clean look. Then I got out a piece of nice quilting muslin from the closet and ironed it. I experimented with my Brilliance inks so see which color I wanted and this blue was perfect. I inked up my sentiment and stamped. Perfect the first time, yahoo! I used the floss from the kit to sew up the simple borders. The green heart button was in the kit as well. This kit worked out perfectly for this project. With the floss from the border stitching, I made a french knot for the dot over the "i" and used it to sew on the heart button. I also used this thread to sew on the lace embellishment on the hanger. I attached this sewn piece to the plaid background with glue dots. They are very strong! I added some yellow rick-rack (another leftover from my justjohanna special edition kit) to the background and the hanger. For the lace part of the hanger, I also used some leftover sequins from my special edition kit and held it together with a little seed bead and the floss. I hope you are not bored to death by now. I know that when I see a project on someone's blog, I like to know how they made it and where they got their goodies for the project. I hate to throw anything away, and if you saw my craft room, you'd believe me. I love using stuff from various kits/projects on new ones. Makes me feel so creative. Thanks for reading all of this. It's been a fun project. Thanks, Johanna.