Can you guess who the woman is in the collage??

This is a collage I finished a few months back. It was my first attempt at this, so I was really quite happy with the outcome, especially since it was my first attempt. I had the whole "Masterboard" technique in mind when I started this. If you are not familiar with that, it's where you make a "Masterboard" and then copy your image, regular full size, reductions and so on. You then use those copied images in your artwork for other art pieces. Stampers Sampler has published a lot of these and that's where I actually got the idea. Helga Strauss is doing something similar right now on her blog as well.

This particular one all started with a magazine picture of Penelope Cruz that I came across that I thought was so beautiful. I pretty much just ripped the picture out of the magazine, slapped it on a thin canvas with some gel medium and built the collage up from there. I added printed tissue paper, ephemera and collage images. I also stamped several different images on the piece and I also embossed on it. Pretty much you can do a little bit of everything until you reach a point where you are happy with the outcome. I also went over it with some handmade acrylic paint washes, Distress Crackle Paint and different inks.

Give it a try if you've never done it. To be honest they are fun to make because there are no restrictions or rules.

When I was done I took it down to Staples and make some nice quality colored copies of it. I make full size copies and reduced size copies. From there I made some tags, cards, ATCs, just about everything I could think of. And the great thing is that it's your own work that you can incorporate into whatever you want from here on out. It's not someone else's image that you are using in your work, it's your own creation.

I want to make one in blue's and green's next and then yellow's and orange's.

By the way, I do realize that artist's have been doing this for some time, making their own original collages and then copying it and reincorporating it into their other artwork. I just personally happen to get the idea from Stampers Sampler's Masterboard articles.