My husband and I got the opportunity to do some photography this last weekend. It amazes me how few birds I have actually seen. Every time we go to Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, I see new-to-me birds. Most of the Sandhill Cranes have migrated out.

Text reads: My first sighting of these majestic creatures. Not only beautiful, but very ancient. Sandhill Cranes have the earliest known fossil record of any extant bird. Ridgefield NWR May 12, 2023

Construction: I started with Homemade Solid Paper #4. I placed the Paper FotoBlendz No 1 #4 for the left half and duplicated it to extend the right half. I clipped the photo and duplicated it using Linear Burn blending at 66% opacity. I placed ArtPlay Palette Story’s Platinum Paint #2 over the photo, masking as needed.
I wanted to give more color to the background, so I placed another duplicate of the photo on top at 35% opacity, Linear Burn blended. This was not clipped and filled the entire canvas.
I then placed several paper layers from ArtsyTransfers Homemade on the top, bottom and right sides of the fotoblendz. On the left side I placed ArtsyTransfers Homemade Lace and duplicated it to have a top and bottom half.
I used 6X6 Artsy Kardz Simplicity #2 to add some paint color and the word “LIFE”, to which I duplicated and added a drop shadow.
I also added ArtPlay Palette Simiplicity Brad, ArtPlay Palette Story Flower, AgedTape No 1, Circle Stains No 1, UrbanThreadz No 27 and Story WordART No 1 #2.