I promised Deb Sposa I would post close-ups of my collaged Christmas stars …

They were a warm-up for Acey’s ether-real collage collaboration, a one month project that begins today.

I don’t have process shots, but I began by brushing matt medium onto thin cloth that was laid on the shiny side of freezer paper so it could be peeled up later …

Then I layered bits of paper onto the cloth with more matt medium and topped it all with a sheer tissue paper, which came out kinda cloudy …

So I tried again, this time without the tissue. This particular star was made with dictionary paper (a $2 thrift store find), book cover paper, one with gilt lettering (part of a stash from my former university library gig), and a whispery fine peach paper gifted by Fiona Dempster …

But my favorites were the stars with handmade paper from 2009, scraps of scrapbooking paper, and some watercolor doodling made with my grandkids in Missouri during our Thanksgiving visit. Here I confess I went a little wild with gloss gel medium, but the thicker papers called for some aggressive adhesion …

The resulting strips of cloth-backed collage were traced with hand-drawn stars, cut with deckle-edge scissors, and finished with rose gold craft paint, applied with abandon. After letting them dry out a bit, a needle and metallic DMC floss provided loops for hanging.

And now I’m warmed for the main event. Let the collaging begin!