Out of A Box

Ideas come from almost anywhere... in the case of the following, I bought this box of stationary a while back because I liked the refined feeling it gave me. I knew it would be an inspiration for something in the future. The future is now so I best get with it.

I'll be interpreting that feeling I had in mixed media on fabric..  for now mostly the use of tissues to be adhered to cotton background.  First from my rather large tissue assortment, ( napkins, hand towels, etc etc ) I chose elements I wanted to use and cut them out. At this point... there are 3 layers of each element... but I will eventually eliminate layer 2 and 3 using only the printed top.

I particularly love this yellow bird and cage.

These elements get rearranged multiple times til I am happy with the arrangement.

The next step... one by one.. remove the second and third layers and 'glue' them to fabric using matte medium . You notice the edges of tissue start to become transparent when the matte medium is added to the back side. This is a delicate process that usually involved a fine pin separating the layers  before medium is added to the fabric and tissue applied atop medium. 

I then used an apricot color Prismacolor pencil to scribble texture here and there. Now to let things really dry.  I can heat set the pencil marks but definitely NOT the areas with matte medium. 

Click on Images for enlarged view.   Some subdued background stenciling will be added in open areas when all is dry and then quilting will be yet later! Happy Quilting all!