Birdhouse ATB!

Hi! Mary Nasser here! For today’s project, I wanted to create an inspiring Artist Trading Block (ATB for short!) with a little bird house on top! I used Carolyn Dube’s Now Is The Time small and Now Is The Time large stencils, Eileen Hull's Barn Wood stamp, and a box and birdhouse from Sissix!

For the box, I began by painting the entire surface with unbleached titanium acrylic.

Once that dried, I used the Barn Wood stamp and StazOn Metallic Ink in Copper over the entire surface, too.

I added Tim Holtz Distress Stains in Brushed Pewter, Tarnished Brass and Antiqued Bronze.

Then I used a mini sponge dauber to apply Teal Blue StazOn through portions of Carolyn’s stencils.

Post-it notes helped mask off areas of the stencil around the words I used.

I also laid out some metal ephemera I was considering adding (Mary Beth calls this "auditioning" parts for a work!).

For the birdhouse, I began by painting the entire surface with cobalt turquoise acrylic.

Once that dried, I used the Barn Wood stamp and StazOnTeal Blue over the entire surface, too.

I placed a small matte board flower I’d painted copper and a metal ephemera bird on the surface to "audition" these elements.

Once I finished painting these, the box and birdhouse were easy to assemble with double-sided adhesive tape!
I adhered the bird, flower, text and lock with double-sided adhesive tape
and added a teal gem decal onto the center of the flower.
My last step was to adhere the birdhouse to the top of the box with more double-sided adhesive tape.

Below are views of the side and back:

And here's a detail:

Happy Stenciling!

Mary C. Nasser

Mixed-Media Map Art