Our Creative Corner: Words, Words. Words - Wings to Fly

For August at Our Creative Corner the theme is 'Words, Words, Words'. Click Here to learn more. I was so inspired by all the wonderful 'Wordy' projects from the Design Team and this is a challenge that really appealed to me. I tutor students in English Literature so words are a big part of my life; but where to begin?

Well, an idea started to develop when I spied this novel in my local Hospice Shop. I loved the cover, which suggested flight and all associated with it to me. I had been so impressed with Margie's altered Jane Austen book that I wanted to have a go so I started to fold my 'Guide to the Birds of East Africa'.

I painted the inside covers with a blending of Paper Artsy Fresco Paints in Sage, Mermaid, Guacomole  and some Snowflake to 'Knock back'. The book, I discovered, is not a bird-watching guide, but a romance about two rivals who try to win the hand of lady ornithologist by competing to see who can spot more species of rare birds in the area of Africa where the story takes place. I think this is such a romantic idea and that flight has so many connotations, the ideas started to come to me!

The colours I had chosen initially reminded me of the colour of birds' eggs so I decided to distress the book pages with Tim Holtz distress inks in Walnut Stain and Peacock feathers to carry through the subtle eggshell tone. I made a paper feather in the same colours, stamping it with script. The winged lady and man either side are from Paper Artsy 'Ink and the Dog' plates. I snipped tiny slits into their wings to create a more feathery effect. I added some Retro Cafe Art Gallery paper cuts of birds and eggs and a Graphic 45 butterfly. I stamped grasses in Versamark Olympia Green on the inside covers. There is also a distressed page of script on the left-hand inside cover with a little Treasure Gold on the curled over corner. Birds and words and a tiny bird in a frame, peep out from inside the pages. Please click on the images if you would like to see in more detail.

These are two of the sentiments I used from the Ink and Dog plate, 'Wings to Fly' and 'Take Flight'. My favourite sentiment, however, is this one from 'Crafty Individuals'!

If you open the page a little you can read, 'Be like the bird that, pausing in her flight awhile on boughs too slight, feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings, knowing that she hath wings.'

As well as the added text on the theme of flight, the book text remains at the centre of this project.Thank You, Margie, for the inspiration to 'take off' with my altered book.