Collage Background

 Motivated by Gwen Lafleur and Shawn Petite art I wanted to try collage background.I was not sure how it would look but as I proceeded I liked the textures  formed when the papers overlapped and how the pieces of collage were visible here and there in the artjournal page making it interesting. \

I covered the entire page with scraps of  pattern papers, gift wrappers and Tim Holtz tissue papers. I then started stippling the edges of the papers with different acrylic paints. I started with Distress paint in Walnut Stain then continued with PaperArtsy paint in Midnight Blue, translucent DecoArt paints in Quinacridone Violet, Quinaceridone Gold and BlueGreen. I dried the page in between each layer of the paint. When all the layers were done, I covered the entire page with dirty glaze I learnt from Gwen Lafleur . I mixed Matte medium mixed with Van Dyke Brown and Interference Gold to form the glaze. I left the glaze for a minute or two  then wiped it off from various places so that the collage was visible  in few places.

I left the piece to dry and started with foreground piece. I cut triangles from mixed media paper and applied different texture mediums like modelling paste, Liquitex Black lava gel, Glass bead gel through different Craftangle stencils.Once dry I painted them with Midnight blue and dry brushed Quinacridone Violet and Finnabair Old Gold wax.

The bigger circle was done similar to the triangles but painted with Midnight blue, DecoArt Bluegreen. DecoArt Antiquing Cream in black was used to subdue the vibrant blue green. The inner circle was painted with Quinacridone Gold and Itsybitsy glass liner in black was used with Stencilgirl stencil..

Once these pieces dried, I assembled them in form of cross starting with triangles. I cut each triangle in to two and glued them in four different sides.I heat embossed the edges on all sides with Stampendous aged green and black powders. I used Versamark refill ink and blended it along edges with hand to give gradient effect. Bugle beads from ItsyBitsy was stuck on all sides to form one more layer. This was the most time consuming part (as I had to stick beads and align them) but it enhanced the page so beautifully making it worth the effort.

Itrsybitsy beads were stuck along the edge of outer circle and it was then adhered to the background.
After sticking the inner circle I proceeded to stick rhinestones from Itsybitsy on edge of second circle. I filled the gap between the two circle with lines of Golden Deep Fine Gold paint.  I filled the paint in Fineline bottles along with gloss medium to have liquid consistency and then piped them to form thin lines.

I finished  the page by adding jewel embellishment from Itsybitsy to add more interest .