A first attempt at something different

I stayed with Maureen on Friday as I had to attend the National Presentation then a meeting on Saturday morning. Maureens OH played taxi service for me (what a nice man he is) and once the meeting was over I got back to Maureen's as fast as I could so I could play messy before driving home!

Maureen is my tutor on all things crafty............. and having bought lots of stash at the NEC recently only just had room in the car for my evening wear after loading the craft stuff!

So.... Saturday afternoon, she gave me several tutorials on things I was unsure about including how to apply napkins as a background properly.

I was also itching to start with metal and after not having any success with a large stamped image (I kept creasing the metal whilst trying to emboss the design), I embarked on a smaller metal project using one of Maureens stamps. Metal bit finished I packed up and sadly had to come home! Where does the time go when you start crafting?

This morning I decided to finish the torn napkin background which Maureen had started yesterday.. during the tearing and sticking process I thought about using the finished metal piece on the background.

So here it is - The birdie image stamped onto tissue is the only bit of the project that I am not happy with as I think I used too much Mod Podge to stick it and it hasn't got a completely smooth appearance(didn't have any gel medium so reverted to Mod Podge) - I was scared to press too hard to remove some of the creases as I didn't want the design to disintegrate! I distressed the chipboard 'branch', added a couple of fabric leaves and gave birdie a sparkly eye.

I LOVED doing this... I am hooked I think! I love the cat stamp (another thing that I will now HAVE to buy - lol) and the quote 'You know you love me' just seemed apt for the bird to say whilst being stared at by Kitty looking for his dinner! Kitty has turned out quite well for a first try at metal I think although looks better when enlarged - so please click on it and have a look!

I now have a problem about how to display it..... don't know whether to just mount it onto a plain canvas background or what? Have tried various colours behind it but none seem right so am open to suggestions! Even though it is not perfect I tried very hard!

Have entered this into the Lots To Do challenge which has an open theme this week.