Art Journal page: birds

Just popping in to say a quick hello. I have been busy with lots of last minute orders for Labor Day weddings. It's amazing how many people are getting married over the holiday weekend!

I wanted to show you a before and after shot of an art journal page I did--

Here I actually painted the bird first. I had a library book on painting birds and needed to return it before the fines started racking up, so I grabbed my art journal and started working on blank pages.

Then I added a wash of color using a pigment ink pad and the direct-to-paper (DTP) technique. I chose the ink pad because it was easy to work around the bird without the color running onto him. I used the Colorbox brand Petal Point pads (I also like the Cat's Eye pads too) for this technique. They're wedge shaped and easy to use.

Then the bird just sat there for weeks until I thought of something relevant to write on the page--a story commemorating "Mama Bird" and the sad loss of her one of her little ones.

A happy ending to this story is the babies come by to visit us several times a week. One likes peeping out from under the shed at us and another seems to enjoy sitting by the water hose. They are so sweet!

My Baby Birds

It seems no matter where I live, each spring a cute little bird finds my property hospitable enough to build a nest and raise her young.

This year a little bird and her mate tried to build a nest in my front door wreath. That didn't work well for any of us. The first time I went out the door I nearly had a heart attack when she fluttered away. I'm sure she could have said the same. They gave up and tried the neighbor's wreath instead.

A few weeks later I was rummaging around in the shed looking for something and reached up on a high shelf for a pot. Something fairly large and fuzzy brushed against my hand in a frantic attempt to get away from me. I'm not squeamish, but it startled me and I gave a little squeal. My toddler laughed at me; he thought I was funny! "Momma say, EEK! Ha ha!" All I could think was, "Bats!"

Then I saw the nest. I hadn't noticed it before because I collect bird nests and it was one of mine I'd left out in the shed. Upon closer inspection, I saw it had been altered and had five eggs in it! Somebody hijacked my nest!

A few weeks later, three of the eggs hatched. Mama Bird could be seen flying to and from the shed with worms all day long. She always stopped on the roof of the shed to survey things before slipping in under the eaves. My toddler's job was to keep the bird feeder stocked with seed for Mama Bird.

We checked on the nest every few days. One of the babies didn't make it and we found his little body laying outside the nest. We had a little burial by a rose bush and my son put a dandelion on his grave.

Here are the last two house sparrow chicks. They weren't the least bit concerned about me bothering them. They looked at me, decided I didn't have any worms and then settled down for a nap!

A week later, the nest was empty and there was bird poop all over the shed, so I assume they learned to fly inside the shed! At least they were sheltered from preditors while they fluttered about. I checked inside pots and the bag of potting soil to be sure no one got stuck inside, but everything was empty. Since the shed doesn't stink (any worse than it did before!) I suppose they made it out!