Hey guys! It’s Tracy here, hoping everyone is doing well and staying healthy … and sane! To be honest, some days are the greatest having my husband and youngest daughter home, and other days it’s quite distracting. I have been getting a bunch of crafting done, and that’s really to maintain my own sanity!
Our May Challenge on the Blank Page Muse Blog is “Stencil It.” I decided to venture out of my comfort zone and give mixed media a whirl. Woooo, I tend to overthink it! Anyone else experience that? Sometimes I do it with my regular cards too, so I wasn’t surprised. Well let’s take a look at my project.
I’ve been watching some videos lately, and got out my Distress Spray Stains and Distress Oxide Sprays and went to town on some mixed media paper. I chose mixed media paper because it can tolerate a good deal of water without warping. I don’t have too many colors of sprays, so I just worked with what I had.
Once my backgrounds were to my liking and dry, I applied some texture paste through a stencil over my ink. Because the texture paste has water in it, the paste reacted with my already inked background and took on the color of the layer beneath, hence the greenish, yellowy colors. I actually wasn’t sure what was going to happen since I don’t work with sprays and pastes very much. I ultimately liked the outcome so I just went with it.
Since I had the stencil and texture paste out, I went ahead and added paste to a few backgrounds for later use. Such a time saver!
While my texture paste was drying, I moved on to the focal elements of my card. This flower is from the Scribble and Scratch Mixed Media Set 2, and these cute little bees are from the Heart of Nature Butterflies Bees Set. I wasn’t sure if I was going to use both bees, but I went ahead and stamped both of them, along with the flower and clear embossed them.
I used Copic markers to add color to my images, and did a little bit of shading using colored pencils.
I also wasn’t sure if I wanted to use a yellow flower or a blue flower, so I went back and stamped another one and colored it. It’s nice to have options!! I colored those tiny open spaces from the scribbles with a Copic multiliner pen. I also added some yellow Nuvo Drops to the middle of the flowers for interest, as well as texture.
Now that my cute little bees were colored, I remembered that I had some acetate wings. I added those to my bees for even more interest!
I used dye ink to add some various stamps to the background of my card panel. Among the stamps used were the Bubble Wrap and Sequin Waste Texture Art stamps, which can be seen in the top right and left corners. I also used some Distress Crayons around the stenciled areas. Once all the background stamping was complete, I adhered the bee using foam tape for dimension. Yes, I decided to use only one bee, but both flowers!! The blue flower is glued directly onto the card panel, while the yellow flower was adhered using foam tape. Very textural and dimensional!
I added a tiny sentiment to the panel as well as some additional color with Copic markers. When complete, I mounted my card panel on to a black panel.
I hope you guys enjoyed the project. Even though this style is way out of my comfort zone, I like it! Maybe that’s because I don’t have to be so perfect in the design. You just do what you like and not be so critical of yourself. Gosh gracious, I am so very critical of myself and my work. Thanks so much for hanging out with me on the Blank Page Muse Blog. Hop over to Instagram and join us there too! Be sure to tag us #blankpagemuse and #blankpagemuseblog so that we can see your awesome projects! You can also find me over on Instagram @redsas.
Our June Challenge is going to feature an inspiration board! Can’t wait to see what Kim has in store for us! I hope you join us next month as well.
Until next time, stay awesome!
Tracy
Supplies Used:
Strathmore Mixed Media Paper
Distress Spray Stains from Ranger Ink and Tim Holtz
Distress Oxide Spray from Ranger Ink and Tim Holtz
Texture Paste from Ranger Ink
Number Stencil from Ranger Ink and Dyan Reaveley
Memento Tuxedo Black dye ink from Tsukineko
WOW Embossing Pad
Clear Embossing Powder from Ranger Ink
Copic Markers
Copic Multiliner (.3)
Prismacolor Colored Pencils
Nuvo Drops from Tonic Studios
Neenah Solar White 110lb Cardstock
Distress Crayons from Ranger Ink and Tim Holtz
Transparent Wings from Tim Holtz Idea-ology
Small Talk Stickers from Tim Holtz Idea-ology
Text Stamp from A Stamp In The Hand (background)
Tiny Squares from Rubbermoon (background)
Black 110lb Cardstock from Recollections
Lineco Neutral PH Liquid Adhesive
Foam Tape
Misti from My Sweet Petuna
