I made this as a test-run of a special aA Summer Challenge that will be posted in the Designer Challenges section of the Oscraps Forum on July 10. It's a part of the exciting event that Anna alluded to in her June 18 AnnaNews, and I'm happy to say that I'll be your challenge host. There are great prizes and two ways to win...stay tuned for all the details. I can say no more.

Some notes on process. The challenge isn't about grungethis is just the direction I chose, given the story. I created a lot of the effects by clipping unlikely thingslike pieces of tape and flowersto other unlikely thingslike word art and twigs, so the things became more about color, texture and shape than about what they really were. The grungy glow comes from Inclement Artsty #5 paper, which has the clouds and light build right in. I used that paper a lot, duplicating it with various blending modes (including the saturation mode) for the clouds and for the glowing color.

My last touch was superimposing a big fan (free use, from Textures.com) over my composition. Just couldn't resist.