Upcycled Cardboard Mixed Media Collage

I am thrilled beyond words to announce that I am now a creative guide at A Vintage Journey!!!  Secretly, this has been a huge goal of mine and I am over the moon happy!  To make it even more exciting, my crafty bud Sara Emily of Sara's Closet is also joining the team.  Please hop over and show her some bloggy love.  <3

March marks the third anniversary of the challenge blog and our coordinator and hostess Brenda has chosen our theme stating, "Come join in our ALL ABOARD challenge where you choose what you want to step on board with and although we still need to see you working with the styles and genres listed in the banner at the top of the page you can choose whether you share a card, some altered art, a journal page, a painting, in fact whatever you fancy, but with no theme to follow. Let's have some fun, share our current creations and enjoy the informal feel of our birthday celebrations!"

I was in one of my "moods" and thought why not make a mess?!  I had a pile of really pliable cardboard notebook backs that I decided to use for my substrate.  I cut each one down increasingly 3/4" smaller than the last and tore the bottoms off.  I used the torn off bottoms between each layer to add rough edges along the sides.  In the end the "canvas" is about an inch thick and roughly 8" wide by 10" long - quite large!  I gessoed it heavily to prepare the surface for adding my watercolor.

I used texture paste through a stencil for the top section.  Then I slopped on my color, drying between layers, then flecked a bunch of paint all over.  These are regular old pan watercolors.  My gals are the new Paper Dolls by Tim Holtz.  What birthday celebration would be complete without a party hat?

Here you can see the depth that I achieved with the torn layers.

Splatters, staples, string...  Some book pages for text with some interesting verbiage.  The flower was hand cut from a tiny print of my buddy Zsuzsa's gelli print work - stunning Zsuzsa - thank you!  I added a gesso wash around the stenciled motif and scribbled in highlights with a pen.  All in all fun stuff!

A good "All Aboard" challenge should definitely inspire you to have a play, so do join us!  The creative guides have whipped up inspiration overload, so hop on over to A Vintage Journey and check it out.  Our sponsor this month is Country View Crafts, with a £20 Voucher!  Thanks for your visit today.  Hugs, Autumn