So I had an idea ...

Birdcages, that was the idea I had at some unearthly hour of the morning yesterday, could I make a birdcage using wire and paper?

I sort of knew what I wanted a top and bottom piece with wire struts linking them and then a PaperArtsy bird die cut on a perch hanging inside.

So breakfasted, drugged up (yep still taking it all) and dressed I headed into the craft room - my oasis of calmness and tranquility, aided and abetted by Radio 4 and Maisie Moo (the cat).

I've had some grungeboard knocking around for ages, I've been scared to use in case I used it all up and didn't have any left, insane I know. If I use it all up I just go and buy some more - how numpty am I! So in the "use up the stash mode" I covered it in some old patterned paper I've had for AGES and then gessoed it up, let it dry and sanded it back a bit to get a smooth finish (thanks to ArtsyCrafty weekend for teaching me this technique - I love it)

Colour -what should I use?  Seeing as I'd been good and put everything away from the last make there were no paints on my desk winking at me to use.  I had a inkling for blue / green so dragged (good job I have well defined arm muscles) out the paint tray to inspect and select from the vast quantities of blue and green acrylics I possess. 

Choices made (leaf green and tropical blue), I grabbed some cut and dry and started to paint in thin layers to get the shabby distressed look I wanted. I quite like how when you add water the white gesso starts to pop through the colour.

I then added some PaperArtsy swirls in black archival and peeled paint DI. Finally punched holes around the edge on both pieces for the wires.

Each of the pieces need some sort of edging so I used the spare bits of paper from the 12x12 sheet I used to cover the grungeboard, gessoed and painted in the same way, stamped with peeled paint, cut them into strips and then used the Tim Holtz scallop die to create an edging.  this was glued around the edge using glossy accents.

I used some peacock metal to cut the bird in my Big Shot - metal up for one side and metal down for the other side so the bird was metal on both sides (that makes sense- right?).  Embossed in a Tim folder, scooched around the edges to define sanded and then some citrus alcohol ink lightly dabbed on to tie in with the colour scheme.  Used glossy accent to glue the two sides together but not the feet so I could glue to perch.

Now for the wire, um this is where it got fiddly and I wished I used a heavier gauge wire to be honest.  Cut lengths of wire, fed them through the base holes leaving a bit at the bottom to make the scroll feet and used the mini hot glue gun (only burnt myself twice) to dab some glue over the hole to keep them in place.

I put a hole in the middle of the top piece to push the perch wires through and then threaded the rest of the wires through the corresponding holes on the top.  Wound the perch wires round the other wires to keep in place and bent into scrolls.

Ta da! One wonky, slightly fragile birdcage! Do I like it? Yes I think so, it was sort of what I imagined. As I said I wish I'd used heavier gauge wire, painted the reverse of the edging and possible made the grungeboard round - but hey that's another project!

Have a good day whatever you will be doing (or did), me - another day of resting and I think I'm going to take apart some log cabin patchwork I made ages ago, stuffed in the cupboard as it wasn't quite working and rework into a stripy type quilt top - got a bit of a textile vibe going on after reading my new fave blog Flossie Teacakes

jo

xx