The Red Chair

The journal page I share today was prompted by Simon's Monday challenge, Take a Leap Into the Unknown, and it was all that and more!

I took several photos of each stage so my post is longer than usual but I hope you'll enjoy seeing the process. As always, you can click on the individual photos to see a larger version.

I found this lady's image on the net and know nothing about her but wanted to give her a bigger presence because she is so captivating.

I took a leap and cropped out the frame, reversed the image, then printed the photo in a larger size than I normally work with so she'd fill up the page.

I applied polymer gel medium over my trimmed laser-printed photo, placed it on the page and once dry, began the process of rubbing off the paper to transfer the image.

I penciled-in a scene then went over the lines with a black paint pen.

The next photo shows how I used various stamps with black archival ink to create a pattern for the walls, an orchid for the window sill, and a face and frame for the picture on the wall. I also filled in her dress using black and gray paint then took a leap and decided to add bits of tissue paper to her skirt to give it more interest.

Then I took another leap and decided to use oil pastel crayons to tint the window because I knew they would be easy to smear and help create the look of vintage glass.

I used chalk pastels to tint the wallpaper and brown acrylic paint on the wall base and floor. The orchid was tinted with colored pencils because the design is so small a paintbrush wouldn't be practical.

The wall base looked too plain so I stamped a row of images using brown archival ink. My last color decision was the chair and yes, I took a leap, and painted it with bright red acrylic.

I wasn't too happy with the lady's skirt so I dug out some black tissue paper which I added in strips and then finally opted to trim the skirt with washi tape.

Here's one more look at the final outcome (so you don't have to scroll to the top) and in case you're wondering, my journal is the large format Dylusions by Ranger (each page measures approx. 8" x 11").

To learn more about my image transfer technique, click here for a post that further explains the method I use along with some tips. Maybe you'll take a leap too?

No. 141

What is collage if not upcycle/recycle? Using found bits of ephemera and images from books is common practice for me and so I'm linking this tag to the Monday blog challenge at Simon Says Stamp in honor of this week's theme.

It's another exercise in working through the long, narrow format of a tag and attempting to create a sense of space/depth in the composition. It started with the remainder of a Found Relative photo that I used in another piece.

Book pages, an image transfer, stamping, Tissue Wrap, Remnant Rubs, and a bit of washi tape were used to complete it along with various inks and paint.

All I can say is the best part was placing that tiny airplane in the sky.

Stamp credit: Tim Holtz Components - Flourish

Oliver

Recycle/upcycle is this week's Monday blog challenge at Simon Says Stamp. So, I used a paper bag Valentine's Day luminary that was marked down after the holiday for the background of this tag.

(You can click on the photos for a larger, lightbox view.)

This was a chance to use my very first mini-Distress inks--I purchased Group #13 and think it is a great color combo. The darker brown at the bottom was made by combining the two complimentary colors, Abandoned Coral and Cracked Pistachio.

The flowers are from the Wallflower paper stash and the sun face was cut from an image of a Tarot Card.

You might notice in the pre-paste photo above that there are white strips attached to various flower parts. These are intentionally cut to hold the delicate parts of the flower together and I remove them immediately after I paste it down (before the glue fully dries).

The best glue to use when pasting something this intricate is an aerosol spray adhesive and I never, ever, ever use it indoors!

The portrait is of my grandfather who passed away several years before I was born.