About six weeks or so ago, I saw my first red breasted robin of the year. I felt a rush of excitement knowing that spring was right around the corner and I immediately thought of my mom. Mom loved nature, spring, animals and people – especially her people. When I was a little girl I remember her calling my name saying, “Cami come see the little crocus peeping its head through the snow!” or I’d hear her whisper, “Come and look at the cute red breasted robin out front with a worm dangling from its mouth!” It made her so happy. She loved watching the world awakening from a long slumber, the birds returning, and even the little bugs made her sigh with pleasure. She never even squished a spider but rather gathered it up in a tissue and carried it outside. Mom loved reading me nursery rhymes and ‘Little Robin Red Breast’ was a favorite of ours.
Hence, Little Robin Red Breast is named and created in memory of my wonderful Mom. For all the times she called to me to ‘come and see’ each flower and all the little birds, and every night when she read to me from my Mother Goose book.
The idea-ology box used is the smaller of the two boxes in the Vignette Tray Structures set. Usually I will paint them but this time I did not - it felt more natural. I chose one of my favorite Tim Holtz papers and cut to fit the inside of the box. I brushed all the edges with ground espresso distress ink, stamped a couple designs from the TH Field Notes stamp set, and glued inside the box with collage medium matte.
I painted a raw wooden knob (from my stash) with speckled egg distress paint and glued to the top of the box. I tied some natural and brown twine around the knob.
I chose one of the Etcetera facades and painted it with speckled egg distress paint. The fence is a wooden piece I bought from JoAnn’s, which fit perfectly, and I also painted it with speckled egg distress paint.
After spritzing a piece of TH watercolor paper with water, I placed it between the 3D texture fade ‘Tree Rings’ and ran it through my Vagabond II twice. Next, I sprayed it with ground espresso and walnut ink sprays and let dry.
I cut and glued it to the back of the etcetera façade which I then flicked with ground espresso distress paint. Using the TH Vault Rosettes thinlits set I cut two different circles out of watercolor paper. I sprayed the larger one with walnut Ink and the smaller with aged mahogany. When dry, I layered them and added a TH button on top and glued to the façade.
The Robin is cut from the TH Bird and Egg thinlits colorize set. I used watercolor ink to cut each piece except for the one above and around the eye and the two wings which I cut from TH Idea-ology kraft-stock in a flesh color. I dyed each of the watercolor pieces with Black soot, walnut stain, aged mahogany, or tattered rose. After brushing all the edges with walnut ink distress, I then layered and glued them together.
After gluing the robin to the façade, I started looking through my nature stash. One of our sons and his family have lived in Pennsylvania the past four years. The enormous Oak trees create the largest and most-lovely acorns and every time we visit in the fall, I bring handfuls home for my stash. The big seed pods are another Pennsylvania treasure I’ve recently brought home. Pennsylvania is a beautiful place any time of year. We have loved visiting so many times to see such wonderful places and lovely countrysides, eaten yummy donuts, played and hiked, and welcomed new grandbabies. They are moving south this summer for his residency and I will miss visiting Pennsylvania. It’s become one of my very favorite spots now.
The little pinecones, twigs, and dried flowers come from around our neighborhood where our grandkids love to treasure hunt in the fall with me. Oh how I love spending time seeing through their eyes.
I hot glued moss at the bottom of the façade and the bird’s feet. Underneath the moss I glued several acorns and their little hats. Over this I glued the fence and added a quote chip. I added in the pinecones, seed pods, dried flowers, and another acorn all in and around the robin.
The last thing I did was flick white paint across the front.
I've spent hours and days working on this. So many sweet memories have played in my mind. What a gift to be able to dwell on days long past and think about my cute mom and growing up with so much love.
Thanks for stopping by!
Products used:
TH (Tim Holtz) Etcetera Facades
TH Idea-ology Vignette Tray structures
TH Idea-ology buttons
TH Idea-ology quote chips
TH Idea-ology Kraft Stock
TH Watercolor paper
Tools used:
TH Sizzix Bird & Egg Thinlits Colorize
TH Sizzix Vault Rosettes Thinlits
TH Sizzix Tree Rings 3D Texture Fades
TH/Stampers Anonymous Field Notes
TH Speckled Egg Distress Paint
TH Picket Fence Distress Paint
TH Ground Espresso Distress Paint
TH Ground Espresso Distress Ink
TH Walnut Stain Distress Ink
TH Aged Mahogany Distress Ink
TH Tattered Rose Distress Ink
TH Distress Collage Medium Matte
My Stash:
Twine, drawer knob, acorns, pinecones, & seed pods, moss