Chris's Birdland Book for ICE AB RR

These are the spreads I did for Chris, for her "Birdland" book. The book is so awesome I wish everyone could see it in person....We are in the 5th month of our Round Robin over in the ICE Group and the books are really starting to set some awesome art work in them...no wonder, since everyone in this RR is so very talented.

This first spread presented me with a little diliemma...the spread had been gessoed and then two precious little birds had been drawn near the bottom...my dilemma was did Chris prep this page so that one of us would add our art work to it or did she just want the spread left like it is?...as I looked through the book I saw several spreads that were done the same way, you know with gesso and drawings...so I decided to take a chance and add some art (I use the term loosely here because the art was really already done by Chris) I used a quote by Aesop: "It is not only fine feathers that make the fine birds" and I added some beaded fringe to the top...then I glued some beautiful feathers to the pages...I sure hope this is what Chris had in mind....

These 2 spreads were a lot of fun...The one with the hummingbirds is definitely the most colorfull...for the back ground I used some Asian Gold Leaf paper and I put a bird nest pic on the Gold Leaf then I cut up some brown paper (a Braum's sack to be exact) that I had sponged with some brown and black paint, to make it look like sticks. The other background is a sponging technique that I use from Sherrill Kahn, on water color paper. The square in the right hand corner is also a technique that is from Sherrill Kahn, using foam sheets that have been heated and stamped (my own original hand carved stamp) then painted with Lumiere paints...The hummingbirds have on crowns with a little jewels and feathers. The quote on the left side is:"Never look for birds of this year in the nest of last year". Then I added a fiber covered gold metallic pipecleaner and tied hummingbird charms to the fibers on the right edge of the page.

"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer...It sings because it has a song" is the quote I used for this page...The background is some printed paper that I embellished with "Squirt" fabric paint and some wooden leaves and flowers. My friend Susan the musician made the music notes (she says I don't make them right). Then I glued on some beaded fringe...I didn't think this book had enough "stuff" hanging out of it hence the fringe and the fibers...lol....Chris is going to love it. (I hope)

This is the last spread that I did, the background is some beautiful printed tissue paper that my friend Christy sent me...the pocket at the bottom is made from a dry brush technique on heavy textured card stock...the trim is some gold and white braid that I have been wanting to use ever since I bought it in...lets see...1994 maybe. I used my feather and crow stamps and made tags with pics of birds on them, I stamped the crackle design on the tags before attaching the pics...then I embellished them with some embroidery and beaded flowers...they turned out pretty cool. Well these are my spreads for your book Chris...I hope you like them.