Spring has arrived

Today I'm joining Valerie and her design team at Tag Tuesday, whose theme is Birds, nests, and eggs, as well as the team at Try it on Tuesday whose theme is Use a stencil or two.

I kept promising Valerie I would join this challenge, but needed to think of a way I could do it and still honor my recycling efforts.  It didn't take long to come up with a plan, though.   On my work table I have a used file folder, given to me when my friend Sally closed her office after she retired.  I believe these multiply as I sleep, because I still have a plethora of them.  I also still have leftover homemade texture paste.  I felt sure I had not made too much, but obviously I had.  I did NOT want to waste it, so I decided to use it with the wonderful brick wall stencil my friend Mia sent me.  I always save my leftover bits of thread I cut from the dangles or when I have to remove unwanted thread. This box is starting to overflow, so I was excited to use a few of these castoffs.

Using white glue and bits of thread from my saved thread box, I shaped a bird's nest.  I allowed it to dry on the plastic sheet protector I've been using and recycling.

Here is the final tag.  I call it Spring has arrived.

Two birds, both colored using dye inks, were added to the page.  The bow at the top was taken from another project.

The nest, now dry, is filled with colorful eggs.

The nest sits on a piece of bamboo from my yard that I colored using brown water soluble crayons.

I thought the wall looked a bit lonely, so I found a gifted die cut I had removed from another project when it didn't work.

The "grass" at the bottom of the wall was made using

two colors of water soluble crayons.  The texture paste was starting to get chalky, but I liked the texture because I thought it looked more like a real wall.

A couple of detail shots, this one showing the blue sky I created using two colors of water soluble crayons.

This is Day 5 of 22 leading up to bEARTHday where I recycled a used file folder, used more of my handmade texture paste, created a bird nest using bits of thread and cuttings from my thread box, and cut a piece of last year's bamboo from my yard.

Thank you for visiting today.  I am very grateful you are following along on this recycling journey with me.  I also hope you will join me at Tag Tuesday and Try it on Tuesday, too.