So this month I went a little crazy and dove head first into a technique that I have always admired from a distance: collage. In the process, I have discovered that I could use a course on adhesive - no matter what I do, I seem to have a lot of trouble choosing the right one and in this project in particular it was seriously frustrating. But I digress.
The city skyline image is actually from a vintage postcard of Cologne (found through a quick Google Images search) which I printed onto vellum and cut out. (I then outlined it using one of those Souffle pens Marieke is always raving about and which I finally broke down and bought). I also incorporated another piece of vellum (onto which I printed a handwritten message in German, also from an old postcard image downloaded from the Internet) to use as a background for the pieces I tore from the page from the antique book included in the November kit. I chopped up the quote from the kit with scissors, but not before I used a silver ink pad to change the color because I didn't like the look of the clean white (I would have preferred walnut ink to give it more of a vintage look, but I worked with what I had). I used clear photo corners to adhere the original photos of my grandmother, just in case I need to remove them in the future. I know that working with copies is often suggested, but I like the look of the originals, especially the quality of the paper they were printed on and the decorative edges. In retrospect, I probably should have practiced using the Souffle pens on scratch paper rather than on the actual layout, but I actually like the way it came out using the stencils. Adhering vellum seems to be the bane of my existence: if you like the look of the city skyline, consider it a happy accident - I probably couldn't do it again if I tried. But again, I kind of like how it turned out. Maybe that's the thing about collage - there really are no "mistakes."
Ladies and gentlemen, I may have found my medium!
