Art Journal CJ continues....

....and we are nearly there with it, despite a few sticky moments and delays. This CJ was "Nursery Rhymes" and belongs to my friend Helly who is a CJ virgin. I had a few ideas but as I know her quite well I decided to go with a blackbird pie!!

 I hand drew the pie and use a bit of a bird stamp I have to stamp the blackbird peeping out. The background is watercolour crayons washed over and then I hand wrote the first line of the rhyme...

Inside are my four and twenty blackbirds; a feat of multiple masking! All was coloured in with watercolour pencil or crayon before attaching the pie lid with a brad. It has turned out rather similiar to my Berkeley Square hasn't it?

Hey little Birdie....

I couldn't resist him! I also discovered that it was on Efemera's blog that I read about the book. Do go and visit her blog, absolutely lovely things she has created. This guy stands about 2" high and was very fiddly, especially the legs.

My daughter Jess needed a polystyrene head (like you do) so when I ordered one from Amazon, two other tiny felt books accidentally fell into my basket too. I think I shall be making lots more of these teeny tiny projects!

My new friend!

So here is my peacock! He hasn't got a name yet but I am sure somebody will come up with one soon. As I was blog-hopping a while ago I came across a post that recommended a book called "little birds". On the cover was a felt bird and as I love felt I decided to treat myself. Imagine my excitement when I found a pattern for this absolutely scrumptious fellow as well as lots of other lovelies! He has taken a few hours to do but it was lovely to sew something completely by hand for a change.

This is his face and top knots!

And a back view of his tail. The colours have bleached out a bit in all this gorgeous sunshine. IRL he is electric turquoise and purple, so very bright and not as muted as he looks here.

Thank you for stopping by and especially leaving comments. I have had lots of really lovely ones recently and it really makes my day that you stop and bother to leave them.