My Creative Scrapbook

Claire Hawkins: April 2023 Main Kit

12x12 Layout: Shine Bright – A Cheats Guide to Mixed Media

Hi everyone,   

It’s Claire here, and today I’m sharing my take on a cheats guide to mixed media.

I love the effect of mixed media, but rarely get messy with full on inks and paints, instead opting for dried mixed media with brushed Distress Oxides.

I love this month’s kit – bursting with bold, bright colours. To help anchor them, I like to add black, but for someone who isn’t that confident with messy mixed media, I find adding black really scary, so I’ve applied a little cheat to help me achieve the effect I want.

 

I had loosely arranged my patterned paper on the page, and before adhering everything together, decided I’d love some bold black paint stripes to offset the design. I knew I’d never get them in the right position, and then found I didn’t have any black paint in my stash!

So, I had a rummage through my mixed media drawer and found some glossy black texture paste. I scraped some on to a messy mat and added a few squirts of water to help loosen it.

Once it had quite a tactile consistency, I used a spatula to drag it across a scrap piece of cardstock. This resulted in a nice glossy black stripe, but also lots of texture.

 

After creating four stripes, I left them to dry and went back to my patterned paper.

For my layout, I had chosen Paper #21, which is full of small patterned squares. I cut 4 rows of 3 squares, keeping them in tact, and just distressing the edges. I also cut 4 individual squares of different colours and patterns, which I’d later add on top to create extra height.

I mounted my photo on a piece of Paper #9 which is one of my favourites – to me it mimics lots of coloured lights and thought it would be perfect to match my photo of Tokyo at night. For extra texture, I also added a layer of white tissue paper to help separate it from the background papers.

Once all the prep on the paper was done, the black stripes were dry.

I took my scissors and cut out each stripe (I had made 4 in total to match the four rows of patterned paper in my design). I was careful to also cut around some of the extra splashes around the edges to make them look more rustic.

Using double sided tape, I stuck them to the page, underneath where each paper row would sit. Unless you look particularly closely, you’d never know these were added separately.

They give the appearance of being applied directly to the page, whilst still offering the benefits of repositioning them until you’re completely happy, and it was significantly less messy than trying to get this right first time on a full sheet of 12x12 – I’d recommend it and I’m sure it’ll be a technique I use again.

Once the black stripes were in place, I assembled the patterned paper squares, raising them on foam on top of the black stripes and staggering them so as not to create a straight vertical line.

With the individual squares, I distressed the edges and again raised these on foam, throughout the design.

 

I embellished each one, using banners from the embellishment pack which I outlined with a black Sharpie, chipboard hearts and a globe sticker from the cardstock stickers pack.

To the left of the photograph, I added a small banner that I cut from Paper #1, adding an eyelet and thread from my stash.

 

I also added a sticker saying “always look on the bright side” under my photo. It seemed to be a perfect match to my picture which is full of bright city lights. It was also quite fitting as I had had a nasty fall about an hour before this picture was taken which has left me on crutches for a few weeks!!

I wanted to add “Shine Bright” to the page as my title, using the chipboard words that come with the kit.

I used a small thin paintbrush to paint the chipboard with some silver starlight metallic paint. It matches the silver chipboard hearts and silver foiling that you’ll find in this kit (on some of the stickers and chipboard pieces), adding a bit of glitz and sparkle to the layout.

As a final touch, I trimmed about half an inch from my page, mounting it on Paper #22 to bring all the rainbow colours together.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this page, and it’s encouraged those who may be a little apprehensive of wet mixed media to give it a try.

I had great fun creating this month and hope to be back soon with some more layouts.

Claire

@Scrappysoulmate