Tag Archives: tissue paper

Art Journal Hybrid Scrapbooking

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Today’s adventure is going to take us into a combination art journaling and memory keeping layout, where we’ll use some photos that are less than picture perfect.

js_stpatdayOne of my daughters enjoyed attending the St. Patrick’s Day festivities in St. Paul, Minnesota for a number of years, and I would end up with just some fun photos that I would either see on her phone, or maybe on social media. What better way to use imperfect photos than to combine them in an art journal style layout. When the only photo you have is less than perfect, it suddenly becomes the perfect photo!

My friend Joanna Grant has a number of vintage photos that she shares frequently, and I love them for use in mixed media. I printed several St. Patrick’s Day themed vintage greeting or postcards on my inkjet printer, using presentation paper. Presentation paper will usually give you a much better print to work with, without being as heavy or as expensive as photo paper. After printing and cutting the images, I used some Glue N’ Seal to adhere them to my pages in a mixed media journal, using a collage method; gluing over and under the image.

Vintage St. Patrick's Day prints from inkjet printer applied to layout.

Vintage St. Patrick’s Day prints from inkjet printer applied to layout.

Then I applied some dylusions paint in fresh lime, and lemon zest. Not only did I cover the empty places on the page, but I began to paint over the images.

Apply paint to begin to pull page together and continue building the background.

Apply paint to begin to pull page together and continue building the background.

Then, I applied some plain white tissue paper to a few places, just to give it a bit of texture, and to begin to tone down some of the color. You can see more on applying tissue paper in a previous post.

White tissue paper randomly applied for added texture.

White tissue paper randomly applied for added texture.

Next, I used the edge of an old plastic gift card and began to add a bit of white gesso over the pages, to begin to tone down some of the background. At this point, it was going to overpower the photos!

Gesso applied to tone down some of the background.

Gesso applied to tone down some of the background.

What good Irish layout would be complete without more shamrocks? I went to Cricut.com’s Design Space and found a shamrock image to cut as stencil on my Cricut, then inked on a layer.

Shamrock stencil used for another layer.

Another layer added using a stencil.

 

Random stenciling.

Random stenciling.

That looked a bit overpowering, so I added another bit of white gesso.

More gesso applied.

More gesso applied.

I decided to be done with the background, and added the photos I had printed on my inkjet printer. They, too, were printed on presentation paper. The “St Patrick’s Day” letters were also cut with Cricut. If you wanted to, you could use alpha stickers or hand letter. A squiggly border was drawn around each photo, using a thin marker and a thicker one. Space was left for more journaling. If you look closely, you can see there are even several green “diamonds” added for extra bling!

Photos added to the layout.

Photos added to the layout, with a wee bit of journaling.

It turned out messy and I had a great time creating the layout. I probably wouldn’t have normally used these photos, but they certainly embody the crazy times and outfits. Having taken the photo at the end, it looks like there are some places I may go back and work on a wee bit more… and that is the beauty of this kind of project. It’s done when I say it’s done.

What do you say? Do you want to get messy with me?

A few of my friends are bringing you some GREEN ideas today. Next up, check out Alison Day’s five favorite Green Inspired projects.

Until next time…

Cheers to YOUR Artful Adventures!

KS

Spring Mixed Media Technique

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Welcome to Make It Monday! Spring is probably my favorite season. I love how everything springs back to life with gorgeous colors to declare that winter is over. Flowers and blossoming trees are such a glorious sight when you’ve seen nothing but bare branches and brown, or blankets of white snow covering everything! One of my favorite sights of the season is the crabapple tree in our back yard, which is the inspiration for this mixed media canvas. Today’s techniques can be used for mixed media, art journaling, or even scrapbooking.

Spring blossom 8" x 8" mixed media canvas.

Spring blossom 8″ x 8″ mixed media canvas.

This particular project was created on an 8″x8″ canvas. Heavy body acrylics were used with a plastic card to spread the color. For scrapbooking, you can start with a piece of card stock and use various inks, sprays, or colors that do not add a lot of moisture to the paper.

Basic supplies for this project base.

A canvas, heavy body acrylics, plastic card.

After spreading the color, I added a bit of a bright green.

Another bit of color added to the mix.

Another bit of color added to the mix.

 

More color applied with the plastic card.

More color applied with the plastic card.

Texture lines were added with black paint, by just using the edge of the plastic card.

Texture lines added.

Texture lines added.

Sewing pattern tissue paper.

Sewing pattern tissue paper with a twist.

I like to keep sewing pattern tissue to use for various things and decided to use it by twisting it, creating a branch. Once it was twisted, I applied some liquid matte medium on it to help it stick in the twisted state, and to adhere it to the canvas. Other papers you could use for this would be lightweight kraft color paper often used in packing, or a paper lunch bag. Try various widths to create a branch which is a good diameter for your project. A scrapbook page may only need a bit of twine so that you are not added so much bulk to the page.

You may find the next step to be reminiscent of childhood crafting. I really debated using it on a project to share with you, but I just couldn’t help myself. It just seemed to scream that it was the perfect way to achieve my crabapple tree blossoms! I grabbed some colored tissue paper and tore it into pieces about 1″ square. You could easily do the same thing with bits of any paper that is not too heavy. Patterned paper would create interesting variations in the blossoms. The shapes where shaped into little shapes, and a dab of glue was used on the outer tip to apply it to the branch.

Colored tissue paper torn into small little squares.

Colored tissue paper torn into small little squares.

After all the blossoms were added, a cardboard tube section was snipped and shaped into a leaf shape. The edge was dipped in black paint and used to make leaf outlines.

Blossoms applied and leaf shapes added.

Blossoms applied and leaf shapes added.

A bit of a darker green was lightly painted into the leaves, and a bit of detailing was done with black.

Leaves painted and detailed.

Leaves painted and detailed.

The bright green was dabbed into the centers of the blossoms with a tiny paintbrush. ‘Spring’ was written with acrylic paint which was watered down to create an inky consistency.

Blossoms completed and the word 'Spring' was added.

Blossoms completed and the word ‘Spring’ was added.

Here is the completed project. I plan to create one canvas for each season and hang them together.

Spring blossom 8" x 8" mixed media canvas.

Spring blossom 8″ x 8″ mixed media canvas.

Okay, now comment on this post and let me know that you remember using some variation of this tissue paper technique while you were growing up!

make it monday-pink logoMake It Monday Blog Circle

  • You may have landed here from Karen Fitting’s post at Photos Kept Alive where she discusses joining the Planner Craze, showing us her planner.  She’s also sharing her custom page as a free download. Don’t miss out.
  • Next up following me is Alice over at Scrapbook Wonderland. This week, Alice has a unique and creative approach for scrapbooking a game.