Freaky Friday

This is an altered art mixed media piece I did a while back. I made it for Nancy as a thank you for a kindness and, well, as an homage because I used her red mulberry card she made me as the focal point. As she lives in Canada, I waited until she received it before showing it here.

Have you ever had a piece that just would not photograph well in total? I got some great close-up macro shots, so I just decided to show them all throughout this post.

I innocently began by cutting the front off her card, trimming it up, then collaging it with gel medium onto 4x6 chipboard that I had painted pink. I immediately noticed that this caused some of the mulberry paper to lighten and discolor slightly, which was nice albeit sort of garish.

I got out my oil pastel finger cremes and rubbed them into the angel face to highlight its contours and shadows. Then I colored her lips a bright red with marker to accent them and rouged her cheeks.
I decided on a quote to use, found some ornate font, and printed it out on the cardstock I dug out (I want to say it's Basic Grey, but it's been too long and I'm too lazy right now to research it). It was at this point I felt my Muse moving me towards a little gothic, a little Victorian style, so I tore out the words and distressed the edges aggressively, then inked them aggressively.

I pop-dotted the words so they would stand out and look a bit vulnerable, too, like they might have been crumbled up before. The rest was easy and self-explanatory. I totally enjoyed making the little hanging angel-winged and heart-bead-tailed slide mount. What a great use for them! I'll be making more...one day.
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Anyhoo, moving right along, I finished my vintage swap tags...finally, and got them mailed off. I'll be showing those next, but I wanted to display how the backgrounds turned out before being embellished:

I wish I could tell you it was exciting making these backgrounds, but it was actually boring and lengthy. Lots of drying and flattening time inside my ridiculously heavy botany plant book, in between layering of colors and patterns with ink and stamps and the occasional dry brushing of gesso or paint. Probably 5-6 layers on each tag. This was my first time to do this, so I'm sure I moved at the slowest rate known to man. It should get faster with practice. I think what distracted me was having to get out and put up my materials while the tags dried and flattened. Start, stop. Start, stop. I tend to put it off entirely after awhile, so sticking with it in a determined fashion was tough for me.

I do think it was worth it, though, in the end. Those are some gorgeous backgrounds, eh?

Until next time,