I do like that word. Good thing I took French in school, huh?

Oh so many moons ago in one of Michael de Meng's classes, I learned a trick to create that patina look with acrylics. For the first time, I got the colors to blend the right way! I was going to cut up the shadow image and use it in a couple of ATCs.
But yesterday I changed my mind. Paper soaks up paint, of course, unless you seal it with a barrier of matte medium. Michael explained that barrier -- which is basically acrylic paint without the color -- allows more paint to sit on top of the paper and blend properly.

In this case, I painted thin layers of glaze, rather than straight color or watered-down color. That allowed the shadow of the patterned paper to remain more visible.

Since the color turned out so well, I decided to use it more literally as a shadow on the page. I also created clouds with torn lace paper and this soft, fuzzy black paper I've had for a while.
The black paper brings in an element of softness I'd wanted. (BTW kids, don't use a heat gun to dry paint, or anything else, near the fuzzy paper. It melts. The result: a hard, flattened surface kind of like the edges of macaroni and cheese that's been overheated in the microwave.)
I may need to blend the edges of the patterned paper with more paint. But I just might leave it that way anyhow. I think the untouched paper draws the eye to the herringbone and flower pattern that's partly covered by the printer ink.