i try to never even think in terms of "prizes"...

 ...when it comes to creative challenges. surely the reward is the inspiration we feel when someone comes up with an approach or a theme or a technique we would never have thought to use on our own? or even a potential "roadblock" where the first thought is, "i don't think i'm gonna pull THIS off"... that forces one to think outside the box. having said that, i confess that the set of gorgeous antique french digital ephemera that's on offer to a random participant in the february collage challenge at greenpaper was enough to make me hurry up and finish, photo, and post my creation NOW rather than this weekend, just to get a shot at the prize. ;)

for the challenge miss mary gave us three images, and we must use at least a bit of each:

we are allowed to alter and combine them in any way we like, so i did: i put a few photoshop filters on the lovely lady and printed her on photopaper*; i made the ledger a little bigger and printed it on an inkjet transparency; i made the calling card HUGE (because i knew i mostly just wanted the swan) an printed it on some slightly yellowed matte cardstock. and then i combined everything, and a few more bits, besides!

(digital collage images: greenpaper; patterned paper: glitz; journaling card: mme; glitter stickers: unknown; charm: prima; inks: ranger)

truth be told, there was a lot of aimless moving things about in this session, and for quite a while i thought i'd be happier about the process than the outcome... which was FINE with me. usually when i am stumped i "stall" by doing some methodical tasks like fussy cutting, playing with inks, maybe a bit of distressing of edges, or a little hand-sewing; and often, at some point, i have an "AHA!" moment where everything comes together at the very last minute. i really didn't think this was going to be one of those times... and then, somehow, magically, it WAS. (and right there you have everything i ♥LOVE♥ about collage!!!)  

*i generally fill a whole sheet with various sizes of images... filling in with random digital papers if needed; so i absolutely ALWAYS have leftovers, which are a nice starting point for the next project... ;)