Bird embellishments

Hello again, Mandy here.  I was at the NEC last month and bought a pack of transparent scrapbook embellishments by g.c.d.Studios.  This got me thinking about making my own.  Here's what I came up with... 

 
To begin with, I found a website called vintage printables with copyright free images.  I fiddled with & cropped loads of bird pictures in Photoshop Elements 5 to eventually end up with four sheets of A4 - large & small birds in both black & white and in colour. 

Below, you can see the colour version of large birds...

I printed the sheets of birds out onto acetate (from STAPLES) and played around with different ways to make them more 'arty' and personalised.

To make bird 1. (on the top photo)  I used silver glitter glue on the back of a large, coloured bird, just highlighting parts of the bird like it's wing & tail.  Then for bird 2. I chose another large, coloured bird & covered it's body with Glossy Accents then sprinkled on iridescent glitter.

For bird 3. I chose a large, black and white bird & used 'stonewash' blue alcohol ink on a felt applicator.  I wanted a see-through border around the bird image so to make sure I only inked the bird itself, I printed out the same sheet of birds onto scrap paper & made a mask of the bird I wanted.  I put the paper printout with the cut-out bird over the acetate bird...

After I covered the bird with blue alcohol ink I turned the bird over then stamped some text onto the non-inked side with 'teal' blue STAZON ink. 

Birds 4. and 5. were coloured birds with rub-ons applied to them.  I made another paper mask so the rub-ons would only be on the bird and not on the see-through border around the bird...

 

Finally, to make bird 6.  I used 'dusty concord' purple Distress ink, on a foam applicator, again using a mask of paper...

 
Once dry, I used the same text stamp with black STAZON ink over the top. 

One of the birds I really liked was sitting on a wire perch.  I decided not to have a see-through border on this bird & cut it out without one, but I made a paper mask to fit over the perch so the Distress ink wouldn't get on the perch...

Finally I close-cut one of the large birds and used it as a mask with some Glimmer Mist...

 

I've made a layered Photoshop document with black and white bird images, which can be used like brushes (stamps) on digital layouts.  Click to download...

Download Bird brushes black and white

Also, My blog has high-resolution pictures of the bird images (that I can't seem to post on here) so if anyone wants to print out their own set of birds to embellish and use on scrapbook layouts or cards, they can.  The images print out really well on paper too.  If you use the bird images, don't forget to let us know here at IACW and post a link of what you made so we can take a look!  Bye, for now,

Mandy.

Comments

[Eleanor]

Wow! I just love what you've done with these birds. And one of them will be perfect for an embroidery project I have in mind. Fab.
E
xx

[Suzanne]

How brilliant! Thanks for all the details.

[Debbie Roberts]

Beautiful project, I have never printed on acetate before, is it a special printable one and do you need a certain kind of printer?

Debbie x

[alexa]

Amazingly talented and inventive work!

[Mandy]

Thanks for the lovely comments :)
To answer Debbie's question...

I just have an ordinary inkjet homeprinter and I buy my acetates from STAPLES. They are called TRANSPARENCY FILM and are suitable for inkjet printers. There's a smooth side and a rough side and you print onto the rough side. I handle my printed images quite gently because you can scrape off the image with your fingernails if you're too rough - as I discovered :(
hth,
Mandy

[Lorraine]

What a brilliant post. I am definitely going to be trying this. Fantastic. I totally love your bird 3.

[Carmen]

Really loved this post, so many different things to try out :)

[Lynne V]

I want to try this, I love the effects you've created, I need to visit Staples in the near future :)

[Anne]

Fabulous thanks for the tips :)
Anne x