Dans ma maison il y a ... un oiseau en hiver

A friend of mine wrote me recently and commented on my art. She said she noticed that I used a lot of black. Was it intentional? Did I have an aversion to white? I thought about it awhile and decided that I do have an aversion to white. Not really white though, just plain white cardstock. For one thing, I am so messy that it always ends up smudged. Always. For another, it is boring to me. All I can think of is, 'how can I fill that white space with some color!' I don't dislike white as much as I love color.

Today I decided to try something pale, but with lots of texture. I've wanted to participate in the Dans ma maison il y a challenge for a long time. There is something so incredibly stimulating about a lot of the French altered art/stamping that they feature. Lots of color, lots of texture, and just an all-around feast for the eyes.

Ok, this is now turning into a book, but I want to share a technique I tried on this piece. Like lots of Cuttlebug addicts, I think constantly of things I can emboss. Lately I have been thinking about felt - not the nice wool kind, the cheap stuff you get at the craft store. I thought that maybe if I wet it a bit, embossed it and then dried it w/my heat gun, it might make a good piece to layer on. Well, it worked pretty well, but the cool thing is, it melts when you heat it! That means you get lots of cobwebby burned away areas so you can peek through to what's underneath. Very cool, right? The roof of my house is birch bark that I found at the Pottery Barn outlet. 'You're buying bark?' says my husband, a Minnesota native, in total disbelief. ;-)

Stamp credits: Oxford Impressions (un oiseau). The bird is from Lisa's Altered Art. Hmmm....I haven't over there for awhile, might need to check it out today! Make sure you click on the pictures to see this at full size. You can really see the texture of the felt!