Fly.... or Squirrel?

A few years ago, I signed up to be a tester for new products.

Many times it's for adhesives, lotions, tape, etc.

This go-round, I'm testing painter's tape.

Well, as many of you know, I have a lot of items I could use a roll of painter's tape on. This time, I tested it on an old, 8x10 picture frame backer board. I used the frame for another project some time ago. (I'm not a hoarder!) The outer side of the board is a velvety layer adhered to cardboard, so I decided to tape off a couple of stripes on the front side.

One strip. Two. Three. Four.

A narrow stripe at the top and a wider stripe at the bottom - the space created between two of the pieces of tape. Wider at the bottom to create a bit of weight.

Well, not having ANY sort of plan or design, I was just going to paint a couple of white stripes and peel the tape to see how the tape edges worked, not really thinking through I was taping on old cardboard. I really wasn't expecting much. I was playing.

A happy accident. Not usually a good thing when painting stripes on walls or signage, but the tape peeled off some of the painted cardboard surface. TEXTURE! Hmmmm... kind of cool.

Well, one thing led to another. I dug into a tote or two. Found some old Tim Holtz plastic letters, (leftovers from a previous project) Hmmm. What if?.... and then... what if? Things were kinda coming together into something black and white and dimensional.

I grabbed a round cap and dipped it into white paint. A little askew on the edge... one, two, three. Or should I stamp five circles? Three. No idea at this point what would go into those circles, if anything. I was just playing with space. White space...or in this case black space.

Then came dry brushing the plastic letters. I started at the right top corner... then had to reload my brush. Hmmmm... What if?... Yeah. I like that. Do a gradient from top to bottom and left to right. Yeah. That's working for me.

What about that white area at the bottom left? Hmmmm...What do I have? Oh, an old, black radio knob. Hey. It's a circle. Continuing with the circle theme. Odd number - 1 to go with my other odd number - 3.

The center had two staples coming through from the stand in the back. What can I put in there as a focal point? Sky is the limit here.

Then, I found a set of cast resin dragon fly wings my friend, Erik, molded and cast as a goof years ago. (Ok. Maybe I am a hoarder of sorts.) They are SO thin and delicate, and a little worse for wear, but I'm just playing, right?

Well, if I put the wings in place, I'll need a body. Bullet casing? Bolt? Something rusty? Hey, I know. A painted paint brush. In BLACK and WHITE!

Then, using a couple of the spare plastic letters, FLY.

I ended up removing the staples in the center and the back standee thing since the backer board also had a hanging ring.

So, there you have it...my painter's tape test!

Squirrel.

Now, I need to focus and do a REAL painter's tape test.

***eta: I just noticed the last two question marks... Fitting, huh?