Year List (you'd have to be a birder)

In the (some might call sad) world of birding, we keep lists.  I won't bore you with the details but one is a year list.

New little note book and a piece of copper led to this.  It's a bit rustic but as I'm the only one using it, I won't mind the wonky edges.

I cut the copper sheet slightly smaller than the cover of the book, then traced the outline of the copper before sketching out my design.

The birds at the top and the 'list' were taken from a Clarity stencil.  I printed the 'year' off the computer and traced them all through and drew the puffin and owl.

I placed the tracing over the copper and used a biro to go over the design.

Then working from the back and using an embossing tool, I went over everything I wanted raised on the front.  There's a lot of too-ing and fro-ing with this to get the detail and definition.

I (stupidly, it turns out) decided that I wanted to make the area around the birds look like beaten copper, so used the pen to stab the dots - note to self, this hurts your fingers so don't do it again!  Looks nice though!

When I was happy(ish) with it, I filled the back with modelling paste, let it dry, then went over the front indented areas with a black Promarker, rubbing off the excess.  Finally I used heavy gel medium to glue the copper to the front of the notebook