(Not) Venetian Lace

Here is a funny project I thought of at the spur of the moment yesterday when I was at the grocery store.

It was dirt-cheap and took very little time.
Taking two different size doilies, I poked a thin white thread through the smallest holes at the edges and tied them together with a knot.  I kept layering them, until they looked like this.
Obviously, the doilies are made of paper and bound to get torn, spilled on, chewed, eaten, consumed, and/or spontaneously combust at any given moment.

So my goal is to start collecting lace doilies of different sizes at thrift stores, garage sales, and antique shops, and eventually get enough to sew them all together.

This will have to do for now.

Also, here's how the finished fireplace mantle looks.

I bought those postcards in Venice in 2005 or 2006 (can't remember which, I went twice), and have been keeping them for something like this all these years.

I think they're supposed to be seven stock roles in an opera.  Come to think of it, I should have taken a close up picture of some of them.

I also have four females.  I want to do something with them in the bathroom, e.g. powder room (get it?).  But taping them up will damage them, and I can't afford to buy the kind of picture frames I like.

Haha, it's not like I can just hop a flight back to Venice if one of them gets damaged!

How do you think I could (affordably) improve my paper doily decoration?  What do you suggest for my four Venetian post cards?