Ringling Brothers...

It's another wonderful Circle of Friends journal! This is Nancy's journal and she asked us to create a circus themed page.

Most of the other entries were very bright so I decided to go with a more vintage feel. So I went hunting for the perfect vintage clown and I found one through an Etsy store, Digital Collage Sheets.

Before I even found the clown/hobo I knew that I wanted to create/build a big top out of fabric. Once I had the image I selected my fabrics and sewed them together. To add stability I affixed it to cardboard. The thin cream ribbon is concealing the sew lines.

I researched some early Circus' and of course The Ringling Brother's popped up. So I went with their name, stamping it on a 1/2 inch twill ribbon that I rubbed some brown ink on and frayed at the edges.

The super small image inside the frame is a portion of an original Ringling Brother's poster. I covered it with diamond glaze before affixing it to the tent with a silver brad that matches the frame.

My clown/hobo needed a little bit of sprucing up so I went with the tried and true standby, a flower. His doesn't squirt water but I did put a bunch of iridescent glass beads in the center to give it a water type effect.

Of course what would a circus be without elephants? I stamped the elephants on a dark greenish paper. I also used this paper behind the clown. And affixed them to the edge of the tent.

To fill up some of the open space I added a ticket stub and some metal embellishments.

You can really see how three dimensional this piece is here.

I hope Nancy likes my vintage take on her theme.