Queen of the 4th of July Parade

Happy 4th of July, everybody!

This little collage idea just came to me about two hours ago. It's amazing how sometimes I'll go days and weeks (or even longer!) without creating something and then BAM!! inspiration hits and I can't wait to play. This is my first holiday inspired collage.

I first started thinking about making a collage with a picture of a child holding a sparkler and then I started looking for an appropriate picture. I stumbled across this little girl, Yvonne, on divas and dunces Flickr photostream and she called to me. I thought that she would look fabulous with not only a sparkler in her hand but an American flag in her other hand as well. The background is a copy of "America the Beautiful" and cool papers. I colored Yvonne's dress with chalks and enhanced it with a gold pen. Her flag is made of an image I found online and a toothpick while her sparkler is hand-drawn (that's about the extent of my drawing ability!). The buttons are ones that my mother-in-law let me have, and the trims are from Marilyn at Outside the Lines (check out her Etsy shop; it has lots of fun things to create with). Um, as I finished up, I knew that the little girl would need a crown, but I don't know where my little crowns are, so, I, um, took one off an ATC I got awhile back. *gulp* Sorry! As soon as I find my crowns, I'll put it back, I swear, but Yvonne needed a crown!

So, I hope you enjoy your 4th of July, if it's a holiday you celebrate. If it isn't, I still hope you have a lovely day!

These magnets are now available in my Etsy shop. Keep your eyes out for more fun-filled items.

"House in the Sky" Collage

"House in the Sky" Collage
Originally uploaded by La Dama de Collage

I'm not really sure if I'm done with this collage, but I really like it the way it is now, so I'm going to leave it for a little bit and then go back and decide if it needs any other embellishments to finish it up.

This collage definately started with the picture. I found this picture on *Playingwithbrush's Flickr photostream and it really stuck with me. I thought about it a lot before I started working with it. I then decided that each of the girls (and the dog!) needed a crown, so I printed off the crown transparencies from jack and cat curio's Flickr photostream and then colored in the opposite side with a gold American Crafts Metallic Marker. I then adhered them to a piece of cardboard that I had covered with a sheet of Amy Butler scrapbook paper and then added the text from a vintage children's book which I aged with chalk ink.

So, like I said, I'm not sure I'm done with this one, but, for now, I like it!

My Kissing Blocks

Several weeks ago, I bought a box of 100 1.5" wooden blocks from Twice-Round Beads and More's Etsy Shop. I thought they might be fun to play with. And they are! I've just made my first set of collage blocks. They're the smallest canvas (for lack of a better word) that I've used in my art. I've thought about inchies for a long time now, but I've never made any. Maybe now that I've made my "kiss" blocks, I'll be adventurous and make some inchies. But here are my "Kiss" blocks:

Hmm, it looks like Blogger isn't letting me upload my image due to an "internal error." So, here's the link to it on Flickr.

I started these by painting them first. I then chose four different pieces of coordinating scrapbook paper and traced, cut, and glued the pieces to the blocks. The images are from takeabreak's Flickr page. I then adhered the letter stickers to the blocks along with some other embellishments. And now I have a fun little set of blocks for my bookshelf. Maybe I should put some of my fluffy romances on one shelf and use these to decorate that shelf. Hmm, sounds like fun!

"Direction" and "Breathe" Art Journal Pages

Well, May didn't seem like it was flying by when I was still pregnant and wondering when I was going to have that baby, but looking at my art journal, my last page was done on May 1st and I still haven't blogged about it. "Direction" was my word from the Art Journal Challenge Flickr Group. This page didn't turn out quite like I wanted because the paint pen wouldn't work. But I do like the legs without bodies walking down the golden path.

This is my "Breathe" page for the Art Journal Challenge Flickr Group . It's mostly done with Sharpies with a photo of the baby, a piece of torn scrapbook paper, and the word "breathe" rubber stamped to finish it off. It's my first art journal page that I didn't paint. And everything except the Sharpie coloring was done standing up since I don't have a place at my table right now to do anything. Believe it or not, I'm actually almost done organizing my stuff...but the table is still covered. I don't get it.

Too tired to think...

If any of the post below doesn't make sense, I'm sorry. I was falling asleep while writing it.

Fashion Silhouettes

Fashion Silhouettes All 3 Together
Originally uploaded by La Dama de Collage

I have had these three almost finished for quite a while now; I just needed to get a hot glue gun to secure the lace and the buttons as glue dots were not doing the trick. Here's how these were created:

1. I started with canvas boards again and glued on strips of old sheet music. I then painted over the sheet music using cheapo acrylic paints.

2. After they dried, I made some ink jet transparency transfers of three different silhouettes I got from Jersey Barb at the Collage Images Flickr Group (you have to be a member of the group to look at the pictures). Ink jet transparency transfers are pretty easy; you do need to practice a little before trying to add them to your real artwork. I think I'll post a tutorial on how to do them another time, but if you really want to know how to do them, here's how I learned to do them: http://reviews.ebay.com/Make-your-OWN-rub-ons_W0QQugidZ10000000000111773?ssPageName=BUYGD:CAT:-1:SEARCH:2

3. I then glued on some black lace and pretty vintage inspired black buttons. Glue dots don't really do the trick for these, so I used hot glue instead.

4. I glued on some black ribbon on the back for a hanger and then covered the back with more vintage sheet music to finish them up.

They were actually really easy. They were just a little time consuming because you had to wait for paint to dry and glue to dry. But they were fun and now they're on my wall!