student of clouds (digi-conversion)

i made this little digi-collage for the font throwdown gina and i had waaaaaaay back in january. i liked it at the time, and i like it now, despite the fact that the excerpt of billy collins' poem "student of clouds" is not entirely readable...or well, at least not EASILY readable. i've thought off and on of making a hard-copy version of this, but wasn't sure how to solve the font problem...or make it TEXTURAL (which is one of the points of MAKING a hard copy, imo!)

but it's my friend paul's birthday and i know he really wants a version of this he can hang up, so i applied myself to both problems.

first i changed the gorgeous grungy script to a gorgeous grungy typewriter font. it pained me to do so, because the script totally had (& has!) the vibe i want, but the point is to illustrate the POEM and if you cannot read the poem, you're in trouble, right? so i bit the bullet and did it, and it looks quite a bit better than i feared, which is nice!

i tried a couple of things for texture, the first being to print on sticky-backed canvas*. (hey mari!!!) it looked cool, but (this is hard to tell from the photos) i was kind of wondering if it was a bit dull and soft-looking compared to the test-print i'd done on photo paper...and when he saw them side by side, LHJ unsolicited, offered the same opinion, so i decided to go with the brighter version (i will use these canvas words for SOMETHING, though, don't worry; and i'll be using the technique again...and OFTEN...i suspect!)

i considered and/or experimented with: a collaged background; more/higher contrast stitching; corrugated cardboard frame; distressed/darker edges; and a lot (A LOT!) of different mats. but nothing was really right, until, in frustration i just decided to pare down and go totally simple:

yep. torn edges, heidi swapp chipboard letters, all-white stitching, one dark mat, white background. go figure. definitely not the texturey dramatic masterpiece i was envisioning...but...the poem stands out AWESOMELY, which is exactly what i wanted! (happy birthday, paul!) ♥

*in case you are wondering, as i was beforehand: this was completely easy, straight-forward, and drama-free. i trimmed a 12x12 sheet of the canvas (which is about the weight of cardstock; & the backing makes it fairly rigid) to 8.5x11" so it would fit in the paper tray of my (nothing special or expensive) HP photosmart inkjet all-in-one. then i pressed "print" and held my breath...but it was FINE! so yeah...i think a period of printing EVERYTHING on canvas, just to see if it looks cool or not, will probably ensue. i apologize in advance if this becomes tedius! :)