Altered Coaster

This is a coaster that I altered for one of my Yahoo group's "Red" Lottery. Every month there is a theme and anyone who wants to participate makes an art piece using that theme. At the end of the month, there is a random drawing and the winner receives all the art! The lucky winner then gets to pick the theme for the next month. This is the first time I've participated. Since I love the color red, I just had to do something this month.

There are many layers on this, as nothing seemed to work as I originally planned. Isn't that the way with art? You imagine one thing and start working and the piece just develops on its own after that. I gessoed the coaster first, then added bits of various torn papers, then gessoed over that. I then used a red ink pad direct to the papers, but it turned out way too pink. So I sponged on red acrylic paint - several coats to get it more red. I stamped the background with black ink and a favorite Stampington flourish and the Tim Holtz stamp with white paint. The image of the impish child is a freebie from Giuseppina Cirincione"s book, Collage Lost and Found. (She has some great projects in this book and offers many images for copying.)