Hi, my name is Katrina and I am one of Tangie's creative crew.  Each month I bring you a mixed media project.  This month I have an art journal page to show you using part of the 2017 inSD Grab Bag (the inSD Grab Bag is no longer available, but go to TB&CO for more great digital art supplies).

I live in the southwest of England and for many years now I have been keeping a record of the date that the swifts return to the skies over our garden.  It is always between the 1st and 5th of May each year.  

This year on May 5th we looked up to see them swooping over our garden, bang on time.  How a tiny bird can fly all the way from wintering in west Africa to arrive in the skies over our garden at the same time every year?  It's just mind blowing!  So this page is dedicated to all those little birds making monumental journeys this year.  I do have to confess though that the bird in my page is not a swift but a swallow.  I am sure our feathered friends will forgive me.

To begin my page I chose the images I wanted along with a backing paper, sized them all in my photo editing software and printed them out.  I then cut them all out.

The next thing to do was glue the backing paper into my art journal

I use a 7.5 inch square journal, so I always make my papers a touch larger, stick them into my journal and then cut it to size. It is much easier then having a paper the correct size and having to get it spot on in your journal.

I then started to build up the background. I used the tag and the bright coloured piece of collage which I overlapped in the middle of the page.  I then edged them using the Tim Holtz Distress® Crayons.

When I put my swallow on top he got a bit lost so I decided he needed a lighter background. For that I used a stencil that I ran some gesso over to give me a lighter background for my bird.

Once that was dry I added a few die cuts, swallow and a few finishing touches to give me my finished page.

I will be back again next month with another mixed media project. Until then enjoy watching the birds in your garden and take care of yourself.                                                      

Love Katrina

[Posted by: Katrina Rollings]