'Moments'

Hello my dear crafty friends, so glad you stopped by!

There are so many lovely 49 & Market goodies to play with in the new

spring kit from International Scrapbook Garden, and I love how this page turned out,

tenderness and the brutal beauty of nature was the look I was going for here.

'Moments'

This paper from the 'Tattered Garden' collection is called 'Tattered Leaves' and I really love the

details in these papers and the rich dark colors. I created a small step by step of how I  create

my backgrounds, it just involves a lot of layers of gessoes and paints, in this case I used

the two Shimmerz Inklings in Steely Blue Eyes and Coral Reef from the Mixed Media kit. 

I added some stamping with the Kaisercraft stamp and used the Crafter's Workshop stencil,

both of these from the Bonus Embellishment kit.

After my background was finished, I layered on some vintage book paper, some torn up pieces 

from another 49 & Market paper, the 49 & Market chipboard circle and honeycomb 

from the Embellishment Bonus kit, some fussy cut leaves and clocks from two 13arts papers 

from the Bonus Paper kit and some 49 & Market flowers from the Extra Blooms kit.

I would like to enter my layout into two challenges:

This gorgeous moodboard is by the wonderful blog called 'Cinnamon Tea Scrap',

one of my favourite blogs ever, my heart melts looking at all the wonderful 

work by these girls. They have moved their challenges over to Instagram now,

and you can find them at cinnamon_tea_scrap. Everything about this

moodboard inspired me: the pale colors, the peeling paint, the old books,

and the delicate softness of that pretty lace.

The second challenge was a sketch I really loved:

This is another amazing blog with so many talented designers, and 

a lot of different styles, please check it out here.

I created my page with the kit 'A Rustic Spring' which you can purchase here.

A simple tutorial on how to create a mixed media background:

Step 1: I always choose my paper, cover it with a coat of clear gesso to prep it for 

all the mediums I will use, and then gather and arrange my elements so I can decide

on the design, where I am going to use my paints and create the focus of my background. 

This helps me form a mental image in my mind that I can follow as I'm creating my page 

and also helps me from 'overthinking' things as I'm creating; it just allows 

my process to flow a lot smoother and be really enjoyable as opposed to frustrating.

Step 2: I like to apply heavy white gesso very randomly and very messily. I love my

pages to have an aged worn look, sort of like a peeling wall, and this gesso makes great 

textures, especially when I overheat it with my heat tool. I like to heat it up so the gesso 

bubbles up and cracks.

Step 3: This step of creating the background can take a while, as I'm using my 

paints, more gesso and also finally stamps and a stencil to create the look I'm going for.

It can take several different layers to get to this look, so just play with it and have fun!

I apply the Inklings here with a soft round brush, letting the paint seep into the cracked gesso,

and also just splashing the paint around (my favourite part). I really love those little pots of paint,

you can use them with very little water to get the saturated colors or dilute them more for 

a more watercolor effect. I use a stamp all around the page, and then finally 

use some more white gesso through a stencil to add some more textures.

The last steps are glueing down my elements, the photo and the flowers, and then 

after that is all done I go around the page with some more paint to blend everything

together. I hope this sparks some ideas in you all! My style is quite deconstructed

and messy, but you could still try these steps on your background just perhaps 

in a bit more delicate way to get some cool mixed media textures on your background.

Long post, hope you enjoyed!

See you soon,

Lisa xo