Its no secret - I love online challenges. And one of the biggest reasons is that they push me to try new techniques, new color combinations, new products or new designs. This year some of the NSD challenges pushed me way out of my box into trying a mixed media layout.
I'd been admiring mixed media layouts for a while - and even had acquired supplies (gesso, watercolors, brushes). But I never really worked up the nerve to use them. So I bit the bullet and tried a mixed media layout. I combined gesso, watercolors and those really cool water brushes for a layout using an old picture of Stephen and Elisabeth building sand castles at Walnut Beach. Here's what I came up with.
I had previously cut a Jillibean placement into pieces to use as a mask. I got two of those pieces out and put them in the corners of a piece of white cardstock. Then I applied a thick coat of gesso to the circles to create texture and dimension. Before the gesso was dry, I used peerless watercolor papers to color the circles. I let the project dry most of the way, peeled up the placemat and was left with a bright circle pattern - maybe brighter than I wanted.
So I dug out some vellum scraps to cover the circles and began to layer pieces of pattern paper - some under the vellum and some on top of the vellum. I added a clear Heidi Swaopp tab to the top of the picture, some studio calico vellum polaroid frames and lots of bits and pieces (mostly wood and paper). I colored the wood pieces and the Pink Paislee stars with Heidi Swapp color shine, mixing colors as I went. The soft feel of the Heidi Swapp shadow letters were t he perfect finishing touch.
When I was done, I was glad I'd tried - I probably won't get this messy very often, but it was fun and I ended up with a unique layout. Its high praise when your teen age daughter says, "it looks better than I thought it would."
So try something new and let me know how it worked out. Have a great Thursday!
I'd been admiring mixed media layouts for a while - and even had acquired supplies (gesso, watercolors, brushes). But I never really worked up the nerve to use them. So I bit the bullet and tried a mixed media layout. I combined gesso, watercolors and those really cool water brushes for a layout using an old picture of Stephen and Elisabeth building sand castles at Walnut Beach. Here's what I came up with.
I had previously cut a Jillibean placement into pieces to use as a mask. I got two of those pieces out and put them in the corners of a piece of white cardstock. Then I applied a thick coat of gesso to the circles to create texture and dimension. Before the gesso was dry, I used peerless watercolor papers to color the circles. I let the project dry most of the way, peeled up the placemat and was left with a bright circle pattern - maybe brighter than I wanted.
So I dug out some vellum scraps to cover the circles and began to layer pieces of pattern paper - some under the vellum and some on top of the vellum. I added a clear Heidi Swaopp tab to the top of the picture, some studio calico vellum polaroid frames and lots of bits and pieces (mostly wood and paper). I colored the wood pieces and the Pink Paislee stars with Heidi Swapp color shine, mixing colors as I went. The soft feel of the Heidi Swapp shadow letters were t he perfect finishing touch.
When I was done, I was glad I'd tried - I probably won't get this messy very often, but it was fun and I ended up with a unique layout. Its high praise when your teen age daughter says, "it looks better than I thought it would."
So try something new and let me know how it worked out. Have a great Thursday!
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really cool page! I love that watercolor over a mask.
ReplyDeleteThis is so inspiring! I'd love to try that out, the colors you've selected are just amazing! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete