I believe I can fly

Recently we discovered a new tea and coffee house called The Blackbird, it is a lovely setting with pretty birdcages hanging from the ceiling, quotes and sayings adorning the walls, along with different merchandise made by local crafters decorating the room. The place was so uplifting that I created this page adding the words “I believe I can fly”.

I started by stenciling Mustard Seed, Mermaid Lagoon, Cracked Pistachio and Black Soot Distress Inks through a Dutch Mask by Dutch Doobadoo using a blending tool, outlining some of the shapes with a black Uni Pin fine line marker to give more definition and interest. To tie into the blackbird theme and birdcages that we saw in the café, I fussy cut the bird and also the birdcages from a gift bag that someone had given me. I then stenciled the fussy cut birdcages using the same background mask and Distress Inks so when they were stuck to the page it looked like you could see through them. I also added some gold acrylic paint to the cages so they were a slightly different tone to the background. I coloured the bird and birdcage details with a black Faber-Castell Big Brush marker and the same black Uni Pin to make them stand out more. They are stuck to the page using Matte Gel Medium and the birdcages are hanging from border stickers by Sandylion. The flowers are felt pads which I fussy cut to create the different pieces and adhered using a UHU Glue Pen. I stamped black dots using black Archival Ink and then I stuck a flower rhinestone in the middle of each one. As there were quotes and sayings around the cafe,  I thought I would add one to my page as well. The wording is rub-on transfers, except “FLY” which is stamped using the same Archival Ink and an alphabet stamp set from Papermania. I added some word border stickers from the same set by Sandylion, these remind me of the time we had at the café. To finish I added shadows around some of the elements using a Slate Spectrum Aqua marker.

My page includes a quote so I am just in time to join Try it on Tuesday again for their challenge “Add a Quote” and as we went on a “Magical Mystery Tour” and discovered this new café, I’m also pleased to be able to join Hazel over at Art Journal Journey.

The Blackbird tea and coffee house is in Ansdell, not that far from where we live. It’s located in a parade of shops and the building used to be an old bank.

The inside of the café is so welcoming, I loved reading all the sayings on the wall art and looking at the beautiful birdcages.

They also have lovely craft pieces for sale that have been made locally, my favourite were these gorgeous Birdies especially Hector (top shelf second from the right). I’ve been looking online and it looks like I can buy the materials to make my very own Hector (grin!). Which little Birdie do you like best?

As T Stands for Tuesday I’m joining the T Gang with my pot of green tea, chicken and sweetcorn sandwich and the most amazing salted caramel cake ever – yum!

There were other delicious looking cakes to choose from …

… as well as this selection of teas and coffees to suit all tastes.

Wishing you all a very Happy T Day!

Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.

Here is a list of all the materials used to create this art journal page:

• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Mustard Seed, Mermaid Lagoon, Cracked Pistachio, Black Soot)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Poundland Metallic Acrylic Paint (Gold)
• Spectrum Aqua Artist Marker (Slate)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Black 199)
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.1mm)
• Dutch Doobadoo A5 Vintage Mask (Dutch Mask)
• Papermania Alphamania A-Z clear stamp set (Leftovers Alphabet PMA9071102)
• Paper gift bag
• Letraset Transfer (Helvetica Bold Condensed 5mm RDC0251)
• Sandylion Kelly Panacci Scrapbook Collection (Stickers & Borders KSCB102)
• Poundland Felt Pads (Black)
• UHU Glue Pen
• Winsor & Newton Matt Gel Medium