love birds....artful thursday #5 paper collage tutorial

well, it is 11:20pm here in utah and i am just uploading my photos for my post and baking sugar cookies for school tomorrow. (if i finish by midnight it will still be thursday) yup, one of those days. you may have noticed i haven't posted anything since last weeks artful thursday.... yup, one of those weeks.

my love birds project idea came from a sweet little shirt one of my students wore to school last week. i asked her mother if she would send me a scan of the image.


i wanted to make a paper collage with the little love birds on a swing. here is how my afternoon went:

first i googled bird silhouettes and printed off my favorites. i didn't like how the birds on the shirt had their necks tucked weird and how the two love birds were facing away from each other.


here is the sketch i did to make a pattern. i cut out both birds using some pretty french book paper and set them out on my background paper. (kitchen spice rosemary by BoBunny) you never know how collages will grow so i placed the birds in the middle of the paper and drew the swing and text around them.



next i sewed along the swing sketch three times. i like the metallic silver thread by Coats. it is rather fragile for sewing on paper so i always use regular thread in the bobbin. roll the paper up like this to fit in your sewing machine.


then before i glue anything down i always letter the text, just in case i choke.
using my favorite 10/0 royal gold paint brush and some golden's fluid acrylic in titan buff i paint along my pencil lines first. after the paint is for sure dry i carefully erase any left over pencil marks. then i outline the letters using a 005 micron pen.




using a bag of small millinery flowers from my desk i lay out some around the swing. it was then that my son came home from school to report that he had no homework, wanted to hang out, could he not do a job today, and then pointed out three really great ideas to add to my collage.

go figure. he suggested i needed to use the green velvet leaf laying on my desk, some coral crepe paper from the pile, and some tiny plastic stamens from a dish nearby. he was quite pleased with himself and left with no job to do...
with everything glued down the collage felt like it was still floating so i framed it with some wallpaper and crepe paper ruffles.



i have been buying frames at the thrift store to spray paint and use for hanging all the art my kids are doing. this frame was $2 and ended up fitting perfectly. ever notice how a frame really finishes a piece? fair warning, there is one more thursday until valentines day and i am planning to make some silk velvet hearts. then i will move on to something un-heart related.
happy thursday, julie