Nuthatches

Well it's a typical British Bank Holiday weekend - grey and wet. At least it's given me the chance to do some crafting though and my Clarity samples should be ready to post on Tuesday.

I thought I'd blog my Nuthatch card today as I was speaking to my Dad yesterday and he said he'd just photographed one. I got him to email me them so I'll put a couple at the end of this post.

Like so many of the DT, I thought that the Lone Tree stencil made the perfect setting for the Nuthatches. Unlike when I first used it, I now have some Grunge Paste and I thought it would give the trees great texture. That gave me a bit of a dilemma - how to stamp the birds on the trees whilst not getting ink from the background on the trees.

First I had to make the trees though. I did them on a separate piece of card to make things easier. I applied the GP fairly thickly and dragged the knife up and down quite a few times to give them lots of texture. When they were dry I cut them out and inked them up with a brush and several shades of brown Distress Ink. As a finishing tough I added a few areas of green to look like lichen.

Then came the fun bit.

I stuck the trees on with Repositionable Herma and then stamped the birds into place. That enabled me to position them properly and get their feet on the trees.

I then removed the trees and masked off the birds so that I was able to work on the background (a typical Clarity scene with trees and hills) without worrying about getting stray ink on the trees.

I made a Post-it mask to add colour to the birds with a make-up sponge. As the background was quite busy I made them quite vibrant so that they stood out. To emphasise them even more I added a mat in the same colour.

That's my vibrant take on a nuthatch...............

now here's a couple of Dad's photos of the real thing. Such a beautiful bird.

Thanks Dad. x

Stamps and Stencils Used

Lone Tree

Remountable Moorhens and Nuthatches

Forest Ridge

Cow from Remountable Farm Set

Lynne

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