Altered Ecletics Challenge #2 - Anyting Goes

Hello Crafters!

Wow, has this summer gone by fast. It's August already. That means school starts in a few short weeks and it's time for a new challenge at Altered Eclectics.

A friend of mine showed me a project on a blog recently and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to make one. So, I took the supplies I needed on my trip up north to see her and we made our projects together. We didn't finish them while I was there (we saw a stamp show for 2 days - whoo hoo!) but almost as soon as I got home I finished mine. What fun. So, here's a close up shot.

Isn't this just the cutest? I wish I could link you back to where my friend found this. I'll keep looking and edit my post when I do find it. Bottom line is I pretty much cased it. I did do my project a smidgen different though.

We started with a bird die-cut from Tim Holtz and some corrugated cardboard that had been marked for the trash bin. Then we bought a newspaper, my friend quickly read it, then we tore some of it into small pieces as if for paper mac'he.  After cutting out 3 birds each and trimming off the longer tail we did not need, we each glued 3 birds together and let sit while we tore the newspaper. We then started applying the paper pieces with Mod-Podge glue onto our birds. I gave this part entirely too much thought as I tried to place paper pieces with the name of the town on in places where I thought it would show as a remembrance of the weekend. In the end, I could only sort of see them but, I knew they were there. However, we did have a few chuckles over not using the obituaries. Once this was all dry we stamped a random design with purpose on both sides of our birds with Momento ink. At this point we quit for the night and went to bed as the next day was to be a long one.

When I got home from my trip I continued to the next step which was to distress the bird randomly with colored inks of my choosing. I used regular craft type ink but, I should have used something with a little deeper color. This is the point where the original artist used clear Gesso before applying the ink. I skipped that part. What I did do is use my inks then poured on extra thick embossing enamel and heated with my heat gun. This was repeated several times until a smooth finish was acquired, about 3 times. After the first application of ink I used Versa-mark ink so I wouldn't muddy up the colors. The same process was done for each of the wings which were circles cut in half (only 2 layers of cardboard).

To attach the wings I used glue and a staple gun then camouflaged the staple with a sharpie and a gel pen. Hey, it worked! The glue alone was just not enough to hold them. Next time I think I will cut a small hole and stuff the end of the wing in it with some good stick-um glue. I also added a couple of brads with glue for the eyes.

The legs I made using a fairly heavy gauge aged wire to which I added bends in to make feet. This part is also different as the original artist connected the wire to buttons. The buttons were cute, just not what I wanted. The last thing I did was add random little white dots with my gel pen and adjust the legs so my little peep would stand up. And here he is:

This really was fun to make and worked perfectly for my August post at Altered Eclectics. Please visit my fellow DT's at AE and at their own blogs, they would love to hear from you. There are some great inspiration projects waiting for you. Remember, this is a monthly challenge blog so you have time to make something of your own and enter it into our challenge. Can't wait to see what you make.

Happy Crafting!