Tuesday, May 18, 2010

the best things in life... (& in collage) ...are FREE!

case in point: here is a project of which i am VERY proud indeed, and it contains approximately $2 worth of materials*!

but first, i should say that the entire inspiration for this came from darling stef, who saw that the gothic arches challenge blog's current theme is BOLLYWOOD, and knew i would want to play! i spent most of sunday afternoon working on my collage, and frankly, it was going nowhere fast. in frustration, i decided to leave it alone, and go out for my exercise walk. while i was walking, i found an 8x10" piece of scuffed and broken 1/4" lucite by the side of the road, so OF COURSE i picked it up and OF COURSE it was the thing that made the whole collage work!!! :)

i know it sounds crazy, but see, part of what i was trying rather unsuccessfully to do was to layer magazine images copied onto transparency over other magazine images...and everything was sort of mushing together a little too much. the layer of lucite in between was just enough to give a bit of depth while still showing both images at the same time.

ok, so do you want to see the collage, then?

i hope my "arch" is prominent enough! i used one of the very cool templates provided on the gothic arches blog (donna's, i believe) enlarged to about 150% and then cut out of patterned paper so that only the FRAME of the arch remained. as usual, i got a bit carried away with my embellishing, so there is less of the outline left than i had intended!

i realize you can't really see that the whole collage is built on my piece of found lucite, so here's a better shot of the foundation:


here is a closeup that gives a better idea of how the lucite spacer helped to separate the layers. i glued my "base" (the b&w scene of lovers from a bollywood film, some hindi text from a magazine, and a few mehndi designs) to a scrap of cardstock which is attached UNDER the lucite; i glued the "middle layer" (that gorgeous transparency copy of aishwaria rai's eye's, an illustration of palm trees from a mughal manuscript & an architectural diagram from an indian travel guide) ON TOP of the lucite, but under the patterned paper arch, and then the embellishments are layered OVER the arch, and in some places, spilling onto the lucite!

i really like how this turned out and i offer my thanks to the folks at the gothic arches challenge blog for devising such a cool theme, and also to miss stephanie for pointing it out to me! ♥


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*the "store-bought" materials, which all came from my stash, include 1/2 a piece of bo-bunny "gypsy" patterned paper; 1/2 a pack of michael's rhinestone flourishes; a couple of anahata katkin glossy cardstock clipart images; and 1/10th of a set of k&co "wild saffron" rub-ons. the rest of the collage consists of magazine and book images, and copies of other images made with my inkjet printer onto kodak photo paper, 3m inkjet transparency or plain paper, depending on the texture i was going for. i used a martha stewart border punch for the cool lattice look at the bottom and sides, and a combination of gluestick, adhesive runner & foam tape to attach the images. the found piece of lucite was trimmed to size by lovely husband jeff using a glass-cutting tool.

17 comments:

  1. Love this! Beautiful color and decoration. Thanks for the inspiration.
    Have a nice day :)

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  2. WOW. I LOVE this. Your arch is totally visible. It's a wonderful combination of layers and colors and bling. Quite worthy of Bollywood.

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  3. Wow- this is amazing! Once again I marvel at your collag-abilty. I love the way you can take a bit of this, a tad of that and come up with a million dollar art piece! And, of course, I adore that the lucite was a found piece - my favorite! Brilliant my friend....

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  4. SMOP....I get to use it again so quickly? Heck, I'll use it every time I'm over here for a peek into your fabbie arty world...this is absolutely mesmerizing...

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  5. wow! this is amazing!! what a gorgeous collage, girl! so rich in colors and design!! LOVE IT!

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  6. wow! this is amazing!! what a gorgeous collage, girl! so rich in colors and design!! LOVE IT!

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  7. huh! Who knew dumpster diving could be so artistic!

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  8. Hooray for Bollywood
    That screwy, ballyhooey Bollywood!
    Magic ... pure, unadulterated magic.

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  9. This is GORGEOUS, my friend!! Love the strong colors and all the pretty details in it. <3
    //Nina

    (stupid laptop, can't make those cute hearts on it)

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  10. OMGoodness Lauren! How stylish and totally Bollywood. Love all the images and how you have layered them, love the embellies too and your firey colour combo - GREAT WORK YOU! Jo x

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  11. It's those eyes that really caught me! Love the whole thing, but the combo of the arch and the eyes is magical! :)

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  12. What a gorgeous arch!
    Beautifully created.

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  13. This may have only cost you $2.00 but the piece is absolutely "priceless". Don't you just love finding a treasure and making something from it... Great use of the lucite....lol... only a crafter/artist would think to adopt such an item... Thank you for participating in the challenge, so glad you found inspiration from the theme. :)

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  14. This is incredible; the richness of the colors and all the images are amazing. Absolutely beautiful, it's mesmerizing...in a good way!! lol

    You and my husband have something in common - you both go for power walks and you often return with something you've found. If I'm with him, I'm the one saying - OMG, don't touch that! You don't know where it's been, etc. etc. etc. You know, a general freakout.

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  15. Fabulous stuff!...... love the recycling thing too!

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  16. Wowza lady, you take my breath away!! This should be frame and hung in a place of prominence! I know I could look at it for extended periods every day!

    (-: Heidi

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  17. Holy smoke-monster (RIP, LOST!), that is one heck of an amaaaaazing piece of work there, missus! Wow...took my breath away! BEEYOOOTIFUL! :)

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