Angel In My Pocket

I have finally finished my Triptych Angel ATCs after lots of deliberation and experiments. I decided to use image maker to transfer my photos of the angel onto fabric, with a vague idea of then stitching into the photo, maybe following the outline of the wings onto the two outer panels. This idea was all well and good, but when I tried to transfer my contrasted blue photo onto a light blue fabric, the paper wouldn't rub off very well and the image cracked and started to peel until I gave up in frustration. (For those who haven't used image maker, it is like a kind of glue which you paint on top of a printed or photocopied image (photos don't work as you can't rub the paper off), then lay glue and image side down onto a piece of fabric. Leave to dry for a few hours and then using water and a sponge (or your fingers, whatever works best for you) start rubbing off the paper, leaving just the image behind! Magic! (Until you realise you are rubbing too hard and the image itself is coming off)) It didn't seem to matter how many times I went over the image, when it dried, there was still a layer of white paper concealing the image.
In the end I scrapped that and tried again, using both a blue version and a more natural coloured version on natural cotton. When rubbing off the paper this time, the blue version again seemed to need more work to get rid of the paper (it may have been the type of paper which was causing issues), but the natural version came out a treat, with just enough paper left on it to give it an aged appearance.
I decided against stitching into the photos in the end, instead using two more ATC backing cards as the outer panels, folding them around the central panel so they were slightly smaller. These I left mostly blank, apart from the first two stanzas of the poem I had chosen, and some gold painted decorative corners. To keep the triptych shut, I used a button and a loop of embroidery thread to complete the look.

There's not a lot to this card and I think to improve it, I could have worked more on the inner flanking panels- maybe using watercolour images behind tracing paper, or printing the text rather than writing it as my handwriting got a bit more erratic with each card. Still, for a first attempt at a themed triptcyh swap, I'm quite proud of them! (And I have still got the blue photos so I can try some more experiments!)