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Thursday, November 23, 2006

A fun new project


I'm so inspired!!! I recently purchased Sally Jean Alexanders' book "Pretty Little Things". OMG....this book is amazing!!!! Aside from the beautiful jewelry, she also touches on how to do a bit of this type of collage, it's random (well it's supposed to be...but I can't help being structured.) She has sparked a flame in me that I can't stop. I've been wanting to play more with mixed media and now I've found THE base to start with the help of Sally. A few years back I was into all sorts of media, but never found exactly what I wanted to do. Besides doing more collage pieces, I will be digging out my soldering iron and microscope slides, becuase I can't wait to get back into jewelry making....so yummy!

For a collage, what Sally tells you to do is: make small slips of paper that say things like paint, paper, draw, 3-D, pattern, etc. You put these slips in a bowl and pick one, and you do it. If you're not ready for that step, put the slip back and choose another.

My attempt above is just a sample of my beginning, just baby steps in comparison. First I gathered some paint (acrylic) colors that I wanted to work with, and painted on watercolor paper. What I learned from the book was to not clean my brush between colors, which I had always done before, this prevented me from getting a flow of colors {very important}. Next I added some torn papers and used a decoupage glue to affix them to the painted paper. The heart design is one that I've used before (my own design, which I traced onto black script paper and affixed to the collage. I then stamped my homemade stamp with white paint and script with black Staz-On.

I'm not nearly done, but wanted to show you now so you can see some of the depth. I'll continue to keep you posted. This is too much fun!!!

4 comments :

Melanie E said...

That is beautiful, Shari! Love the different elements, and of course your painted page. Great tip on not cleaning brushes in between colors. :) Thanks for sharing her tip!

Anonymous said...

What a beautiful card!!! lovely colors!!!

Vicki Bridges said...

Love this Shari, the colors are so soothing yet this is no sleepy design!
Can't wait to see where this new creativity takes you!

Brenda said...

I love the collage. I didn't realize that Layers was your book. I love that book!