Alphastamps Circus Collage

I had such fun making this collage as it reminded me of childhood visits to the circus and also of carnaval, which was celebrated in style in the South of The Netherlands. I can still remember all the colours and the wildly moving shapes of all the attractions. I've tried to capture all this in the collage.

To start I made a fabric/paper collage for which I first of all stamped the muslin (calico in UK) background with a diamond shaped stamp as well as various star stamps. There is not much sign of these, they just add to the multi-layered effect. I added a variety of wildly patterned napkins (serviettes in U.K.) to the mix in all kinds of colours. Somehow yellow got the upper hand, probably because I love it and it makes everything look so warm and summery.

From the collage I cut an 8 x 8" piece which I layered up with white felt by stitching around the outside edges.

First of all I found 4 lovely clowns performing tricks on a transparency from Alphastamps Circus Clowns #6 sheet and stitched them on by machine using orange thread.

The next addition was the picture of the clown and his lover (from Alphastamps Art Deco Valentine fabric sheet). Just above their heads a heart was added (from Paperchase). I went to the Borders Bookshop yesterday as they have a Paperchase franchise in store, to stock up with these hearts (and other shapes too!). I wanted to have more figures as my subconscious mind told me it used to overflow with funny and strange people and other creatures when the circus was in town. I found two fun animals playing the fiddle (from Alphastamps Circus Animals #1 paper sheet) . I added beads for their buttons and rubbed-on some gold to integrate them better into the background. To balance them and following on from their diagonal line I added another small fiddler from Alphastamps Circus Clowns #6 transparency. Following the patterns in the background I added star and round sequins with seed beads in a mix of colours. The text The circus has come to town was made using my Dymo writer and stitched on and further text A good time was added at bottom right.

The bottom edge was finished with a (Mostly) Metallic Jacquard ribbon from Alphastamps which went so well with all the colours in the collage. The other edges were finished by layering the piece with watercolour paper and zigzag stitching the edges while at the same time couching down a crinkly yarn with lots of colours picking up those from the collage.