Assemblage

First conception

Finished piece

Close up of metal on cardboard

Close up of bottom collage piece

Close up of hand painted and embossed paper

As I have stated before, I have always, always loved collage. As a kid I did poster size collages of the Beatles, cutting black and white photos out of fan magazines and fitting them together like a jig saw puzzle. So it was no surprise that recently I became involved in following the work of Seth Apter. Mr. Apter teaches and is a working artist. His website/blog is The Altered Page. I am adding a link to the side bar. A friend and I came within a hair of signing up for classes next July in Paducah, KY. The class sold out in minutes. Damn it. In Paducah! We were upset.

I kept looking at his blog, and reading posts, following his work on Instagram, and collecting "found objects". I knew the day would come when I would stop being intimidated and actually put an assemblage together.

First step was painting some paper to create the look I wanted. I used a variety of craft type paints. When dry, I went through my stash of old scrap book embossing folders, and found 3 from Tim Holtz that fit the bill. The main piece with the die cuts is a grunge style page folder. Mixed up numbers is on the side piece, and if you look closely, the small piece of painted paper at the bottom has been run through a tiny checkerboard style folder. This just adds the right amount of texture. I further grunged it up with Vintage Photo distress ink from Ranger.

In the finished project, the very bottom piece is the front cover to a 1953 yearbook. I bought two old yearbooks at a flea market. The other book cover is off one of my collection of old textbooks. The cardboard came from an Amazon box. I tore off the top layer, then started putting Dale Rowney inks on it, spritzing it with water to make the ink run. Metal pieces: top one I found a jar of at a flea market. Nope, no idea what the hell that is but I like it. Bottom two are from Hobby Lobby out of a pack of metal embellishments. I lightly painted them with craft metallic paint.

The X and circle die cuts are from Seth Apter's collection at Spellbinders. I cut 2 sets out of black card stock, layered them together for a bit more height. Next project I will try for more pronounced dimension. This was an experiment, but I am so totally hooked now... my latest addiction. Or as Cathy likes to say, this week's mental illness!

Go have some fun!
Linda