Follow Follow Follow Follow......

Hello there, it's Podgy the perfectly cute panda here with you today. Remember Cedric's mist ex'bear'iment page?




Well I thought it would make the perfect background for a page about an old cubhood favourite of mine, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum. Although people will probably be more familiar with the technicolor film adaptation, the book is endearing and, in my furry little opinion, better than the film.

Initially I was going to enter my project into our February challenge, which is all about love; if you think about the theme of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy's capacity to love shines through. Firstly, her love for her dog, toto, whom she risks her own life to rescue, then her capacity to accept and love the strangers she meets on her journey, including her sneaking food to the cowardly lion when they are all captured by the wicked witch, coupled with her enduring love for her aunt Em and uncle Harry, who she wants to get home to be with, you'll see that this book is just full of love, and that's why I wanted it to become our challenge piece, BUT, I was outvoted so I decided to just go ahead and make the page anyway.

As in the film, Dorothy gets caught in a storm when she elects to rescue her dog Toto, rather than take shelter with the family. The house is carried away in the wind, and she lands on the wicked witch of the east, earning the eternal love of the munchkins. Her quest to get home starts almost immediately and the witch of the north gifts her a pair of silver shoes, not red as in the film, which probably changed them as this was one of the first films to be shot in colour, as you'll notice by the glorious array of colours used in it.
Anyway, for my creation, I started with some stamping.....



Using our own inimitable style of stamping, I stamped Toto, Dorothy's dog, onto some tissue paper.



Stamping directly onto tissue paper has two advantages over stamping onto card, first, you can flip your image (as long as it's not text, as that looks rather odd in reverse!) the second advantage is, you can glue the image onto your art work, and the tissue paper will dissolve, leaving the image looking perfectly in place on your creation. This is great for adding images on top of textured backgrounds.


I have my own brand of glue to adhere my elements with, ah, this fame game, it's a hard one. Form an orderly queue for my pawtograph won't you?



I printed a wonderful Kansas image from a free printables blog. After much sticking, here is my finished piece.



I found the image of the hut in a magazine, it reminded me of Dorothy's house in Kansas. I couldn't resist the addition of ruby red slippers, despite Dorothy's book shoes being silver, they are an important motif throughout the book and film, and provide Dorothy with the means to return to her family.



I typed and printed the word 'follow' because of the song in the film, but also to depict that Dorothy follows her heart, and never gives up on her wish to be home with her beloved family.



Here's Dorothy, looking lost away from her beloved Kansas, following the road that she hopes will lead her home. I added some paw stamped hearts to depict Dorothy's capacity for love.



With love from the bears.