The Masks of Africa

I wonder if Indiana Jones ever came across these archaeological artifacts? At least they "look" as old as he did tonight. I have always been enthralled with African images-both modern and old. Sometimes it's the simplicity of some of the photos or art and that is why I did not add anything to this piece. I wanted the image to stay centered and not have to compete with anything around it.

This was done using a Dreamweaver stencil (this was the one I chose free with my class). The base layer of card stock is white! Yes, white. I sprayed it with 3 different colors of Memories Mists to achieve what looks like it's sand blasted. I have had people run their fingers over this expecting a rough finish. It's very smooth.

The embossing paste I used is black. When it was dry, I tamped the image (still using the stencil so as not to over paste) with a heat and glue pad and a stiff brush until tacky then laid metal leaf over the image and tamped down with the stiff brush. When this was finished, I swirled the brush over the leaf to remove any extra flyaway bits and in doing this, the edges of black appeared around the masks. I think this is what really set it up perfect.

I then used some textured cardstock scraps for layers, finding colors that emanated from the leafing. Each package of leaf is different with some dominating colors. I found the teals and golds were the main colors in this. One layer is distressed. I then added to a simple black card. You could add some small artifacts to this-bits of whatever to give it more depth maybe.