#365birds OCTOBER 2023

It's been more than a minute since I've posted anything on my blog, much less any of my bird drawings. In a bad headspace in recent months, I am struggling constantly.

The last batch of my bird portraits I shared with you was SEPTEMBER 2023! And, now it's April. Whoa, Linda. 

I share with you today my 14 favorite bird drawings from October, 2023. Being October, I am getting close to the end of my personal challenge, #365birds, during which I drew one bird image each day for a year.

As always, I will put certain information above each of the drawings: the day of  the challenge, the bird's name and where in the world the particular bird can be found naturally.

day 327 - golden conure

brazil

day 328 - european shag

northeast atlantic and the mediterranean

day 329 - great indian hornbill

southeast asia, bhutan, nepal, southwest china, southwest and himalayan india, cambodia, laos, myanmar, thailand and vietnam

day 330 - anhinga

southwest coastal north america - north carolina and texas

day 331 - rooster

day 336 - white-throated magpie jay

central america

day 339 - spiny-cheeked honeyeater

australia

day 344 - ornate hawk eagle

tropical americas

day 346 - bee eater

africa, asia, southern europe, australia, new guinea

day 347 - keel-billed toucan

southern mexico to venezuela and colombia

day 350 - saddle-billed stork

tropical africa

day 352 - american kestrel

alaska, northern canada, the u.s., central mexico, caribbean and south america

day 354 - steller's jay

western north america

day 356 - grey-headed bush shrike

sub-saharan africa

And there you have it. At this point, there are only  nine more days left of my 365-day challenge. I am not going to tell you right now whether I continued after the year was up or not. Watch my blog for the end of it all. ?

Please keep in mind that these are quick snapshots of my original artwork and are not to be used in any way without my express permission. I will gladly have a good quality print made for you if you wish. Just reach out to me.

Birdie

Smiles.

SENDING HUGS

I don't know what exactly it is, but a beautiful floral-themed card has always really appealed to me.

The flower featured on this card is fussy cut from a sheet of metallic-outlined flowers on Stampin' Up! Designer Series Paper. When faced with the possibility of getting several focal points from a single sheet of DSP, and that I can do one of my alltime favorite things -- fussy cutting! -- I am one excited girl.

I colored my chosen flower with Stampin' Blends, which did a wonderful soft job on this gorgeous flower. 

The flower, being as beautiful and large as it is, didn't require just too much effort to incorporate it into a lovely card.

Shown at an angle in the sun, you can appreciate the coppery glow of the outline of the flower. 

Adding dimension with dotted Swiss, created with an embossing folder, was the perfect, but non-invasive, addition to add charm to the card.

If you are lucky enough to have in your stash a couple sheets of this type of Designer Series Paper, and would like to use it on a card similar to this one, here is a tutorial on how you can do so.

SUPPLIES: 

Copper Metallic Cardstock

White cardstock

Soft Seafoam cardstock

Flower cut from metallic-outlined flower DSP

VersaMark ink

Stampin' Blends in: Light and Dark Seafoam, Light and Dark Balmy Blue, Light Mango Melody

Splendid Thoughts

Die Cutting/Embossing Machine

Tasteful Labels dies

Stitched Shapes dies

Balmy Blue ribbon

Stampin' Dimensionals

Genial Gems

Embossing Buddy

Heat Tool

Copper Embossing Powder

Dotted Swiss embossing folder

DIRECTIONS:

Fold a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece of copper metallic cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

Cut a piece of white cardstock to 4" x 5 1/4" and emboss it with a dotted Swiss embossing folder. Add this piece to the card base.

Fussy cut one of the flowers from the Designer Series Paper. Color it as you wish. 

Die cut a 2 7/8" circle with the stitched edge if you have it. Mount the fussy cut flower to this circle. Use Stampin' Dimensionals to add it to the card base so there are even margins at the top and the sides.

Heat emboss in copper embossing powder a sentiment. I used a small flagged label from the Tasteful Labels dies to cut this out.

Take a 6" piece of  Balmy Blue ribbon, fold it in half, and tape it to the back of the sentiment label. Use Stampin' Dimensionals to add it to the lower right corner of the card.

Add three Genial Gems in green to the card, two on the circle and one on the sentiment.

Fussy

Smiles.

COLORED SPECIALTY PAPER

Often in the Stampin' Up! catalogs, there are exquisite lush Designer Series Papers. While gorgeous in their own right, you can make them even gorgeous-er (!) by adding a dash of color.

The card I share with you today is just such a case. To the design on the paper, a paper with a luscious metallic sheen, I added color with Stampin' Blends. Because some of the lines were quite delicate, I needed to use the smaller end of the pens and take a great deal of time.

For my card, I used Stampin' Blends in Dark Tahitian Tide, Dark Parakeet Party and Light Call Me Clover. 

The design on the paper was raised just the slightest bit, almost as if it were gently embossed. Placed at an angle in the sunshine, you can almost "see" the dimension of the design. 

I wanted to add a background with some pop to it, so opted for this leafy embossing folder with Tahitian Tide cardstock. The colored piece was matted with Parakeet Party cardstock.

Once again, as so often happens, the colored design was just so pretty that I didn't want to cover up just too much of its charm. So I opted for a delicate white diecut sentiment, added to a strip of Parakeet Party (how appropriate for a BIRTHDAY: Parakeet PARTY) and popped it up over the lower portion with a few Stampin' Dimensionals.

And how about you? When you get your hands on a luscious piece of paper, do you use it as is, try to fancy it up with color, or add it to your stash where it will while away the rest of its life, unused and unappreciated?

Specialty

Smiles.

VALENTINE HOOT

 Just wanted to wish you all a beautiful Valentine's Day!

Heartfelt 

Smiles.

 

EVEN MORE PRECIOUS

There are ever so many reasons to love Japanese culture. One of the aspects that is especially appealing to me is that of kintsugi, the art of repair. 

Kintsugi is a lovely tradition of restoring broken pottery rather than simply throwing it out in the trash. The pottery is brought back to a whole new -- even more valuable -- life by putting the piece back together using lacquer mixed with powdered gold, silver or platinum, thus celebrating the history of the piece by making it even more worthy, rather than treating it as something that needs disguise or disposal.

This act of restoration is a metaphor for embracing any flaws or imperfections in ourselves and our lives. It also teaches us that life, along with all its roadblocks and unpredictability, is never irretrievable and, through care and time, life can be pieced back together to become even more beautiful and celebrated. The fragility of life and self is then celebrated and embraced instead of mourned.

Below is an example of Kintsugi: Isn't it lovely?

Although the art of kintsugi is usually applied toward the repair of pottery, I thought it could be interesting to try to achieve this effect through papercrafting. My attempt at paper kintsugi is shown below:

I chose a piece of Designer Series Paper that I thought looked somewhat pottery-like and went to work, first destroying it, and then repairing it, making it even more beautiful than it originally was.

Tearing the 4" x 5 1/4" piece of DSP into four distinct sections, I proceeded to repair it by putting it back together onto a 4 1/4" x 5 1/4" card base. The unsightly "cracks", i.e., tears, needed to be fixed in a hurry. 

I added adhesive over the tears, then added the papercrafter's "gold", leafing flakes. It was a messy process, and frustrating, the act of brushing off and beautifying the gold flakes, but I think it turned out quite well, achieving what I'd hoped to before I started. 

A person wouldn't necessarily need to do the tearing. You could just go ahead with a solid piece of your chosen DSP, add "cracklike" adhesive, then covering the "cracks" with the leafing flakes. But, then, you wouldn't be following the reasoning behind the beautiful art of kintsugi, that of repairing something that is broken, since it wasn't even broken in the first place. 

Once my kintsugi was completed, and my DSP was even more beautiful than when I started, I turned my masterpiece into a card by adding a die cut greeting and a few spots of bling.

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Kintsugi symbolizes how we must incorporate our wounds into who we are, rather than try to merely repair and forget them.

David Wong

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Repaired

Smiles.