The Arches of Mardi Gras

Did you ever just get a weird idea and decide to run with it? Here's what happened to me when I got the March kit from Alpha Stamps. I fell in love with the color of the G45 papers and the images on the Costumes collage sheet. The arches seemed like the perfect place to host a costume ball, and what do you know? A slew of Mardi Gras babies decided to crash the party!

On the left is a dashing gentleman, a self-described "dreamer". He's offering a flower to the girl of his dreams, but which one is the lucky lady? It's impossible to tell. This fellow's fancy costume was a little clashy with the background, so I used some Copic markers to make the green and red colors of his outfit lean more towards orange and turquoise. After all, clashing with the decor is so uncouth! 

Copic markers helped out the masked woman's costume as well. The poster on the wall was cut from the scrapbook paper. It perfectly set the mood of the party. The "floor" of each panel is a contrasting paper, simply torn so the white edges show. Isn't this woman so fancy with her bronze fan? The ribbons are a couple of strands of embroidery floss.

Here's the lady on the right. Is she going to be the lucky one who receives that flower? Obviously she feels worthy, carrying around that "beautiful" sign. I have to admit that she does look lovely in her harlequin dress. No Copics were needed for this outfit; the colors in her frock were already perfect.

The panels are hinged on the back with strips of coordinating paper with rounded edges. Nothing fancy; I just freehanded the cuts. Let's talk about those babies, though. I guess they caught wind of the planned festivities and just had to join in. I'm kind of fond of this back view, where you can see them all scaling the wall. Cute, or something from a horror flick? Probably leaning towards more horror, especially considering that the baby on the far right of each panel had to suffer a bit of an amputation to get its legs to fit. I nipped a bit off of their left legs with a wire clipper. I can't say I feel good about that, but art requires sacrifice, yes? The climbing babies are each attached with a dab of hot glue.

I got those little naked babies at a party store. For a complete list of all the other supplies, click here.