Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Å-some fun with Mixed Media

Good evening! 
My mega-super-scrapbooking-days are over, at least for this time, and I'm so tired! It's been two wonderful days and I have made nine layouts and gotten myself into a new creative direction. I'm exhaused by all the inspiration I've been given and I wish I could sit up the whole night and work on my ideas, but since I stayed up very late last night I'm so tired and I need some rest to be able to get out of bed tomorrow.

Anyway, a quick update on the day that is almost over.

Hubby and I went to Artistica before lunch and I got these things - and the CMY-color wheel for hubby, ofcourse!


I started playing with it right away and punched out some circles to make a background with my new Gesso. I took a Bazzill cardstock in a boring color I never use and started painting! The quality of that stuff is amazing! I already love it and just working with it gave so many exciting ideas for future projects!
 
When I had covered the whole surface it looked like this and I was so happy I laughed out loud!
 
Then I sprayed with some inks and  put on even more Gesso.
 

Is it even possible to do wrong with Mixed Media? I tried out my Modeling Paste and it was sooo smooth! I felt I could have made anything with it! I used my Heidi Swapp stencils and made a chevron movement around the centre of the page.
 

Then I mounted a "funny filter mobile photo" of our crazy cat on top of the background and added some burlap accents together with some old news print tissue tape from Ranger. I think I could have worked with this alot more but I was eager to come to a finished product, maybe next time I'll take my time to stamp and color some more layers and saturate the page a bit more.  
 

This far I have learned:

1. I expected the cardstock to warp when I had applied the Gesso. It didn't. It was amazing!
2. The Gesso took up the color from the ink, I will need to seal the ink with the transparent Gesso if I don't want that to happen on future projects.
3. My home made acrylic washes didn't make much color on the Gesso but hubby's inks were great! I just need to find other color combinations than the obvious yellow-pink-teal. Can't wait to try my new watercolors when they arrive!
4. It was really hard to cover up the background with a photo. Perhaps Mixed Media works best with tiny photos?
 
Can't wait to:

1. Cover other stuff than scrapbook paper with Gesso (newspaper, twine/string, paper flowers, chipboard, paper piecings etc)!
2. Make different textures in the modeling paste!
3. Watch lots of Mixed Media videos on You Tube for more inspiration and ideas! I'll make sure to have a note book close by for all the ideas that come to me during the days!
4. Ask my cousine if she would like me to make a 2nd year album for her son! That would be so much fun with all my new ideas and possibilities!

I'm now going on a spending freeze on all crafty stuff except photos. I have been buying so much I need to stay away from the web shops and just play with the stuff I've bought. I can't think of anything that I need to buy anytime soon. It would be great to concentrate on the learning and spend my computer time on the blog instead of in the shops.

Tomorrow I'm back at work and I have secretary duty for the leading board and it will be very interesting. I love that part of my work! On Friday is Swedish National Day so we only work half the day tomorrow and are free on Friday. Feels good! 

Good night ladies and see you soon. Take care!
//Åsa

PS! The heat gun is now officially out of the closet (oh, I mean the basement)!

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