Pages 02/23/08

This is a piece I've just finished for the Altered Art Obsession Yahoo Group. It's one of 10 pieces I made for the swap. The theme is 'Shipwreck'. The swap hostess is going to make tiny little treasure chests, alter them and inside will have all the artwork from the participants. It sounded like a very unique swap, so I couldn't wait to join in and work on mine. The size is a little odd, 2" X 4".
I started with a large sheet of heavyweight watercolor paper and did multiple layers of lumiere metallic paints. On the other side, I found a nice big piece of vintage wallpaper with a crackle/peeled look and adhered it to the back. After I let everything dry, I cut the cards to the size I needed and was ready to start collaging.
I wanted to do an underwater theme, so I found a couple photos at istock photo and downloaded them. I sized them to the size I wanted and printed them on cardstock to my inkjet printer. I attached the girl's image, painted her hair in several layers of acrylics and then added the boat, tossing on the top wave of her hair. I had some pretty nice bindis, so I added that to her face. Lastly, I did a coating of shimmering sparkle paint on her hair (which the photo does not show well.)
For the back, I used a purple stamp pad and weathered the edges. I found a really cool poem and sized properly in photoshop, and printed to a transparency. I adhered it to the card with sparkle paint and then added some simple metallic stars in the corners. Once I get my treasure chest back, I'll post my return. ;-)