What About Wednesday: Autumn is in the Air

Aloha!!

I have been in a mixed media mood this week!! There is something really fun about starting with a blank piece of card stock and adding layers of media and getting something magical at the end.

There is also something therapeutic about playing with paints and texture pastes that is so hard to explain but so necessary for letting go.

So let’s grab some gesso and white card stock and get to town creating something funnel and pretty for an autumn layout.

I prep my cardstock first if I think I am going to be using a lot media. I really like to use clear gesso on card stock. I use the prima brand because it’s a little thicker and isn’t gritty. I also grabbed my concentrated watercolors. They come in tubes so they last a long time. The colors aren’t as vibrant as the pan kind (or at least the set I have) but that makes it perfect for the layout I have in mind. I know I want to create an Autumn layout, and I am loving that blue on the darker side and an ocre type of yellow color. The colors that I am seeing around me.

I am definitely influenced and inspired by the things I see. I have seen a big change in the colors I have been liking to use since moving from a summery and tropical climate to a more temperate and woodsy climate and atmosphere. I love using that as a catalyst for my scrapbook pages.

I first just brushed on with a big brush some blue paint that was watered down. I wanted some spots dark and some lighter. I love that especially with watercolor you can get totally different looks by adding more or less water. It really adds interest to the page if some areas are darker than others. It also allows you to have spots that have white open space and spots that are perfect for building layers on.

I allowed some of this blue to fall in droplets around the paper. Now the next step is the hardest, but I find this necessary. You wait a little while, and let it start to dry. I do this about ten minutes because if you use a heat gun right away, it will flow all over you page. Remember I used gesso and that is what is supposed to happen. I don’t mind a little movement of the paint, that can look a little cool. For this layout though I really want the brush strokes to stay where I put them. The heat gun also warps the paper a little more than just air drying. I am impatient so about 10 minutes is all I can wait before wanting to do the next step.

I mixed some orange and red with some brown and made a new color. I really love that deep red brown color you see on leaves and wanted some of the color on my page. I knew it would be just right for a layout about leaves. A subject that I can’t stop taking pictures of. I literally have dozens of pictures of my tree and the stages of colorization it has went through so far.

When those droplets are dry I decided to give my Shimmerz Texturez paste a try. I used the open space from a cut file I used when I made cards and then the layout I made last week. I thought it would be cool if I could paste that word on the blue watercolor background.

I mixed the Texturez in Mari-Gold Digger with some texture paste I already had in my stash. It is super thick. My goal was to make the Texturez a little thicker so it wouldn’t leak through the homemade stencil. I love the Shimmerz products so much, they are so creamy. This kind has some pieces of texture in it which works kinda good with Autumn, if you ask me. It reminds me of pieces of pebbles and sticks that blow around with the leaves.

Guess what?! It turned out perfect!! So I add another one. I can use one for my title.

I layer some papers behind my photo of changing leaves. I add some silhouette cut leaves in the layers as well. Then a shipping tag. I scattered some more of the cut leaves in a diagonal on the layout. I knew I could use those as my embellishment clusters especially since I didn’t want to go crazy on the layout.

Each cluster has some leaves, an acorn, some gold thread, a phrase sticker and a cork butterfly. I really love the addition of texture from the thread and cork. I used staples in the bottom cluster and I really like what that adds too.

I added a cute little paper clip shaped like a leaf in the corner of my photo. I also added a transparent sticker with a rub on. (Actually the rub on was from a couple of years ago and half of it rubbed on. I had to fix that by adding a sticker that made sense.)

I finished up my title. Scattered some Falling Leaves Sequins and finished the layout by splattering some Vibez in Egg-noggin. I love the gold splatters and how it just helps tie everything all together on the page.

Mixed Media can be so much fun. And can really help spark some extra creativity that you have been needing to add to your layouts. I love how a little media can go a long way too. (In total I only used three things. Watercolors and texture paste.) I hope you give it a go to create a unique background to help tell your story.

Here is a look at the process video I made to go along with this layout.

I will see you next week my friends!! I hope in the meantime you head over to the SpiegelMom Scraps Facebook Group and see what everyone else is doing this week and share what you are up too. We love to see how you are using your SpiegelMom Scraps supplies!!

Hannah