Reddy For Collage

Hello,

I have altered another canvas :o)) This one only took a few hours to do, I am getting the hang of it now and ventured into stamping straight onto the canvas again and this time I managed to get the images right!! I still haven't got the courage to go ahead and stamp the whole thing yet though...that is something I am working myself up to!



For this collage, I used Fired Brick and Old Paper Cracklepaint and applied this to random patches of the canvas and set it aside to dry.

Next, armed with a Stanley knife (and for those of you who know me, you know what a dangerous procedure this could be!) I cut up some mountboard into 1 1/2" squares, 12 in total and then cut a 3" square piece for the centre. I took three of the pieces and painted them with the Fired Brick Cracklepaint and then painted the centre piece the same. These were then set aside to dry and I got cracking with the other small squares.



I used various papers, including Tim Holtz Collection papers I printed from his fabby new CD's...the papers come out really well but I am not so sure that I would print the plain sides, think of all the ink that would use up! I also printed off a couple of postcards and some ephemera too. The other pieces of paper I used were from my oddments box, so I am not sure of their origin but I am pretty sure that one piece was a Rustic Gem offcut.





One of the papers I printed off was the Toy Blocks page. I cut one of the letters out and was really happy to find that it fitted exactly into a bottle cap, so I fixed this in and filled the cap with Glossy Accents and then added a little DooDad letter to match the larger one. One thing I did notice though....when the GA was dry, the letter I had printed had bled a little so the image isn't as crisp as it could be...I guess that is the drawback of using at home printing!!






I added various stamped images to the papers and to the squares that I had coloured with Distress Inks. I also attempted to use Distress Embossing Powder but I still cannot master the use of this and so it looks a little naff!! Needless to say, one of these squares was covered with the bottle cap and the other I stamped onto and then added the pen nib.






I added a few DooDads to the squares to finish them off and then I used a little glass bottle that I have had in my stash for years....I filled it up with beads, pearls (not real ones I hasten to add) mini dice and a few DooDad words. I then rolled up a piece of cork, again this has languished in my stash box for years, and popped this into the top of the bottle. I fixed all the embellies onto the squares using Glossy Accents. I have found that this is just about the best adhesive for this type of thing and it doesn't have a nasty whiff like silicone glue has!






I used a metal file to rough up and distress the edges of all the squares and then lightly dragged a gold Krylon (yes, I know you are really surprised to see me using this pen for a change!!) around the edges of them.



Finally, to add a little something to the final look, I popped Glossy Accents onto some of the stamped images and onto the little Scotty dog too. The majority of the embellies are from The Stamp Connection. They have the most fab Jamboree bags that are full of old pieces of jewellery, games pieces and beads etc and they are perfect for accenting altered art.

Ooops, nearly forgot to say, I coloured the canvas using Distress Inks in Old Paper, Fired Brick and edged with Walnut Stain.

Now, red is not usually a colour that I use a lot but for some reason, this past few weeks I have been using it a lot more...probably something to do with the Fired Brick Cracklepaint which was a gift from my lovely friend Andrea.

Anyways, I would really love your honest opinions of this canvas. I have actually made it for a friend who is not feeling very well at the moment and I am hoping that it cheers her up a bit. No names though, it is a surprise and it is already winging it's way to her house as I type :O))

Thanks for looking

Hels x