Hummingbird Christmas

Hi all. I have been traveling for work, and so not being all crafty, but I finally got home a couple of days ago. The whole time I was traveling I kept coming back to making a purple and turquoise hummingbird carrying a Christmas greeting. So when I got home, THIS is what I ended up with:

This image is Steampunk Hummingbird . The silvers on the body of the bird are Cool greys. I added a touch of turquoise to the wings and some of the V12 to the tail feathers as well. This gave a little more dimension to the grey. The purples are V12, 15, 17, and the turquoises are BG000, 12, 45, 49 and 78.  When I was done, I colored around the entire image with B39... this is the blue. I knew I wanted to cut this image out, but the dainty stems of the feathers on the wings was going to make it really tough. 

The background was a LOT of fun.  First I took a piece of white paper and laid down a stencil.  I used a stencil brush and added some art anthology mixed media product.  The one I have is a silver. Once dried, I used silks acrylic glaze over it. The one I used was Caribbean Mist.  I took a paintbrush and painted over the entire area. Then I took a damp paper towel and wiped the glaze off. This removed all the shiny turquoise from everywhere except where the original stencil had left areas open. It is all shiny and glittery and beautifully textured. 

Last I popped up the hummingbird, and added this little charm I found at one of the big box craft stores with some fiber I have had in my stash for about forever. The final step before mounting with the navy and white cardstock was to add some glossy lacquer over the entire image to make it shine. 

And VOILA - crafty hummingbird with Christmas greetings. 

I hope everyone has a HAPPY Christmas and a WONDERFUL NEW YEAR! 

See you around the web!