riding a horse

Happy Saturday, my friends.  I've always loved horses.  They are so graceful and beautiful.  I've always wanted one.  I think every little girl dreams of having a horse of her own.  I sure did.  But not having a lot of money, even going riding wasn't an option when we were young.  However, we were fortunate in being able to attend a couple of weeks at a summer camp each year, where they had horses.  My parents were involved in handcrafts and counseling, so we got free weeks of camp.  And you can bet I was out on a horse every chance I got. 

I was working on an art journal challenge for OWSE Yahoo group called hidden collage.  It required collaging papers, ephemera, or whatever on your page, but leaving open spaces to add color with other mediums -- watercolor crayons, gesso, paint...  I started with a base piece that was a cover on a university alumni mailing.  I gave it a good coating of gesso on both the front & back to make it more sturdy.  For my collage, I used mostly designer paper, but also pages from an old book, a piece of a map, some junk mail, and a horse from a calendar page.  Although much of the collaged area was covered up, part of it needed to still be visible, so I made sure the horse was still showing. 

I also found a horse picture using a Google search.  After printing an enlarged view, I cut it out, so I could trace around it on my page.  Much better than testing my drawing skills (or lack thereof). 

I die cut two borders using an older Spellbinders border die.  I added ink to both, because I wanted them darker than the paper I used.  The brown one is a wood grain paper, but it's pretty hard to tell, since I covered a lot of it.  I used a small section to make a corner on the other side. 

The sentiment is computer generated and I also added some doodling with a Sharpie marker. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I hope you get a chance to go horseback riding soon.