Inspired by
Anna Dabrowska aka Finnabair, I decided to try my hand at her style of collage. She is a genius whom I have admired for some time now. I'm a hacker but I have to say that I did have a blast getting inky with this. She has a
great how-to video on her style, very long but worth it if you have an interest in creating in her style.
First of all, I have no stencils and no Glimmer Mists so I had to improvise in a major way. I cut a stencil/mask with the On The Edge Iron Gate die and some of Tim Holtz's mask sheets. I created some sprays with Mini Misters and Distress Stains like Tim showed on his blog last week. I do have Dylusions sprays and Adirondack Color Wash sprays available but their colors are so intense that I was afraid to use them.
Having set the stage, I took the plunge. My stenciling and masking was done with Bundled Sage and Faded Jeans DS/misted and then I sponged a little Black Soot using the stencil. I then added stamps from
Paris Exposition stamped in Jet Black archival and then a few more from
Ephemera Backgrounds stamped in Sepia archival. The three main photo stamps were stamped in Jet Black archival and deckle cut the edges making them look like old time photos, then sponged with Vintage Photo to age them.
I made a little embellishment using the Spellbinders cross die and some soda can aluminum plus some Vintaj patinas, used the TH Hardware die to cut fasteners, which were painted with black acrylic and then run through the Damask TF, coated with UTEE and finally I rubbed a little gold paint over them. I used some black Vintaj patina paint to coat some filigree metal and also rubbed them with the gold paint. And then found a couple of old rusty keys in my flea market finds stash.
Now comes the hard part for me. Anna then sprays her masterpieces with Glimmer mist, including a final shot or two of black - that scared the crap out of me!!! First, what color should I mist it with? I finally decided to use some alcohol ink that I have had tucked away in Mini Misters. When I first started using the alcohol ink, I put them into Mini Misters and used them that way. Then I took Tim Holtz's Creative Chemistry last year and learned that you should NEVER put alcohol inks in Mini Misters, so they have been sitting pushed to the back of my shelf. I pulled out Current and added a bit of rubbing alcohol to water it down and gave my collage a couple of mists. Then I put some Tarnished Brass DS into a mini mister, added a bit of water to dilute it a bit and gave the piece a few sprays of that. I was not impressed with the look of it. I hemmed and hawed for about 30 minutes about adding a spray or two of black mist. I wasn't happy with how the piece looked after the first couple of mistings so I finally thought what the heck and gave it a couple of sprays with Black Soot in a Mini Mister. I still wasn't happy. After studying it and mulling it over, I found a tiny, very stiff paint brush and used it to apply some shading with Black Soot DI. That helped making things pop a bit.
The jury is still out on this. I sort of like it, but am not satisfied. I guess it is a first step and I did have a lot of fun with it so it is probably something I will try again. But now what do I do with it? It's not a card, and not really a wall hanging. This one will probably sit on my shelf for a few months and then go in the trash, after I pluck off all the metal parts to be recycled. Or maybe I should keep it to compare to later pieces so I can track my improvement...humm?? We'll see...
Oh, almost forgot - here is a quick shot I took of the stamping/stenciling collage before I mucked it all up. I really like how that part came out.
I hope you are having a great weekend. I've listed below all of the products I used here that are available at The Funkie Junkie Boutique.
These products used in this piece are available at
The Funkie Junkie Boutique. Ranger/Tim Holtz brand products are always 20% off MSRP!
