Monday, August 17, 2015

Background Tutorial...(with a give away)

Today I want to share a background tutorial with everyone.

This background will be turned into mixed media postcards for a swap I found over at
and hosted by Lisa Vollrath who can be found at TenTwo Studios .
(I have been a fan of her collage sheets for years)

Anyhoo
I am in a use up mode lately. 
Trying to use the items I have around my house rather than go buy the newest latest & greatest.
I realize over the years I have bought and bought...now I need to USE!

This background uses what I have on hand, 
nothing fancy or special today, yet in the end I have a unique background waiting to be turned into
6 postcards.
Several for the swap and several left over.
Like what you see?
Leave a comment and you may get randomly picked for a piece of happy mail from me!

So let's begin...
First up I am using a 12x 12 piece of card stock (which I have piles and piles of)
You don't need special heavy weight paper for mixed media projects, I find that card stock works well for just about everything I am doing right now.
I tore some Washii tape and added strips here and there.
Squirted on some blue Americana acrylic paint (again I love my fluid acrylics but you know what...inexpensive craft paint works just as well for these) craft 

Spread it with a brush and squirt on some green paint by Plaid Folk Art.
Using the same brush spread it around.

Some orange...

And some yellow. Again these are the paints you can buy sometimes on sale 3 for a dollar etc. 
Nothing fancy.

I still had some white space so went back in and added a bit more color.

I took a fan brush and dry brushed some Liquitex unbleached titanium
to calm everything down and blend some edges. Wipe most of the paint off on a piece of scrap paper first, I wanted just a touch of the light color.

A script stamp and Archival ink...perfect for use on paints.
It dries quick and smudge proof. Script stamps are some of my favorite ones, they find their way onto just about everything I do.

A circle stamp by Club Scrap and Teal Blue StazOn ink.

This is where a mistake happened but turn the mistake into a happy design element.
I was using a mister with water & acrylic paint inside. The mister clogged so I took the nozzle off and started flicking, until I forgot I had the open bottle in my hand and tipped it over.
Yes...I meant to do that lol

Dylusions mist through a Crafter's Workshop stencil in areas.

Stamping with numbers and Archival ink.

I went back with the same stencil and used it with Gesso this time.
In some spots I got white diamonds, others the Gesso reactivated the Dylusions mist and it absorbed and  was tinted by the mist.

I went into my drawer full of rub ons.
You know the ones I HAD TO HAVE and never use.
Well here I just applied a bunch of the little tab ones randomly around the page.
Remember this is going to be cut up so each postcard will have a similar but different background.

Lastly some Punchinella and the same yellow paint as used on the background before.
I just rubbed it through with my finger here and there.

And here is the finished background all ready to be cut up.

Remember leave a comment and you'll get entered into a random drawing for a piece of happy mail from me created using a piece of this background.
Deadline for comments to be entered in the drawing is 8/30 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.


11 comments:

Unknown said...

Beautiful page...love the bright colors you used. Haven't worked on my art journal in quite a while. Inspires me to work on a page or two! Thanks for the instructions! :)

Hazel said...

I agree it is a beautiful work

april dawn said...

I love seeing how beautiful backgrounds are made. Thanks for sharing. I too have so much stuff I need to just use. Lots of motivation here.

Debbie said...

Love it Christy! It's so fun to see the process.

Altered Art Studio 9010 said...

Love it Christy! So much fun using up stuff. I hope to join some swaps at the beginning of the new year. Hopefully life will be more settled and I will be all healed. Start thinking about if you can do a trip to Maine to join me in my art studio. :-)

Altered Art Studio 9010 said...

Love it Christy! So much fun using up stuff. I hope to join some swaps at the beginning of the new year. Hopefully life will be more settled and I will be all healed. Start thinking about if you can do a trip to Maine to join me in my art studio. :-)

K said...

Thanks so much for the breakdown! I never feel like I have enough layers, so enjoyed the step by step

nancy y said...

Love seeing your step by step - I haven't worked with mixed media for a long while and just love the look of this! May have to try my hand at one of these!!

Joanne G said...

Very Cool! Now I must go shopping again...need the supplies. You are an inspiration to all of us, thank you so much!

Pam said...

Okay, now I'm motivated to make my postcards for Lisa' swap. I don't know why I've allowed this project to overwhelm me!
Great job of breaking down this process step-by-step!

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