Circus Inchies in Handpainted Frame

New art for the family room!

I found myself at odds recently because I'm in between projects. My studio did get tidied up a bit, but that was no fun. I needed a tiny project. Inchies to the rescue! I had a colorful background made from red and pink tissue paper that I made months (years?) ago, so I cut it into inchie squares and set to work. In the interest of having this be a simple project, I dug up some circus stickers I had that were just the perfect size for tiny art. The next thing I knew, I had a set of 16 inchies. I went back to them several times, adding ink and paint. The once simple project became a bit of an obsession. Once they were done, I liked them so much I decided to mount them. I looked through my paper stash and found the perfect paper for the background. I took this picture so I could remember the order the inchies were in, but that second paper sticking behind convinced me I needed a border, so I chose a nice bright red to go behind the turquoise.

 

Luckily for me, I had a frame I had purchased at Ikea a while back. The mat was cut to the perfect size for those 16 inchies. The frame was a nice light plain wood, but since we're talking circus, I painted it white with red stripes and then sanded it down a bit to distress it. I used several tiny star sequins in the inchies, so I glued a little silver star on each white stripe as well. Plain frame on the left; painted on the right.

Here's was the first look I had of the framed inchies. I like it, but somehow it needed more. After all, the circus is about excess! (Cell phone photo = not the best quality.)

I took it back to the craft room and looked around for some Dresden trim. I love this light turquoise I found. Matching up the corners nicely took some doing, but I think the trim looks great. Each corner also got a little star. Done! 

Here's the art in its new home. My parents made this plant stand for me for Christmas years ago. Now she finally has something to look at!