Collage on Collage! by Helen Chilton

You know what it's like, you suddenly need a card and haven't got anything made and Heaven forbid you send a bought one! Well Melina's new papers come in very handy here.  The collage work is already done: you can tear, cut and piece together as you please and then stamp over the lot if you so wish. I've posted two cards at the bottom that do just that.

 

However you can also collage over the top of the collage papers and create more layers and depth!

I've cut out the bit of paper I want.

It was a bit short so I just added a torn strip at the bottom and a small piece of purple paper to tie in with the tree.

Then I took one of Melina's masks and added some light stencilling with Distress Oxides.

Then I went in with stamps. If you look at the papers you can see these designs already printed on there but you can add more by using Melina's stamps.

Then I added the mushrooms, stamped straight onto the background. I painted them - the background will sometimes show through if the paint is translucent, or will be blocked out, as in the blue middle one, if the paint is more opaque. I like both effects.

To brighten it all up, I added some stamping in white paint...

...and then a few raindrops in blue.

Add shading round the shrooms in a soft pencil to make them stand out.

Here are the two collage cards I made for the shows - very quick and easy, but fun.

So you can see from these projects that you can take your collage to whatever level you like. If you look at the papers, you can see many of Melina's mask and stamp designs printed in them. Being able to add more on top adds to the fun.

Helen