I have a blog...

Hi friends, 

Thanks for stopping by! I’m posting today to introduce myself and showcase an journal spread that I finished up today. I'm going to be posting a few of my past mixed media projects with directions and a list of the products used over the next few weeks, as well as any of my current works. I hope you like what I have to show, drop me a line I'd love to hear from you!

This double page spread was made in my large Dylusions journal. I started out with a very simple background, first applying masking tape to the centre and then adding a layer of Liquitex gesso. Once dry, I add my main colour which is Liquitex ink! in phthalocyanine blue and lots of water which I spray to dilute the ink and help spread over the pages. I did that a few times until I achieved the colour I wanted, I had blotted the colour up in some areas to create light spots and used undiluted ink in others to create darker areas. I let that dry and took a few Lindy's sprays to fill in the white area's, first using T-bird turquoise and then Cactus gold for some shimmer, spraying and using the dip tubes to create splatters.

 This process was new to me, but I'm always determined to use the products I have in new ways to maximise their uses. I took my Shnibblybits cut file in Moroccan tile and cut it out into a 12 x 12 piece of card stock (nothing fancy), I then tore up sections to match the areas I wanted to "stamp", I then took my white DecoArt crackle paste and spread a thin layer on to some wax paper, lay my ripped section into it peeling it up and then pressing it on to the page, lightly rubbing my finger on the back to ensure contact to the page. Another plus to this process was now I have a bunch of pieces covered in crackle paste ready to use for layering or as my focal pieces in a later project! A little tip, I used Finnabair Soft matte gel just over the crackle paste to ensure it won't flake off in the future. 

That dried fairly quickly as it was a thin layer and I took my Shnibblybits file in Number panel stencil, cut it out into a 12 x 12 piece of card stock. Using my Tim Holtz blending tool and Distress ink in Shabby shutters and Broken china I added the numbers randomly into the light areas only, avoiding going over the crackle paste. 

At this point I had in mind the papers I wanted to use for the Shipping tags and envelope, which are another Shnibblybits file. I cut those out of some Farm house paper company papers from the BTW paper pack. Once they were cut out I used Frayed burlap Distress ink on all the edges and glued the hardware onto the tags, added ribbon and the ephemera with Aileen's glue. I wanted to carry the Moroccan tiles onto the envelope and did that by stencilling UHU glue stick glue through the cut file and once almost dry I used Prima rub on foil in Bora Bora over the glued areas. I also added numbers to the envelope in the same manner as the background.

The last things I did were adding Lindy's Cafe au lait with the bottom of a small glass jar creating circles and some splashes, this helped tie the paper colours together with the background. I also added Frayed burlap Distress ink to the edges of my spread and did a little shading around the ephemera just with a pencil and blending stump.

Lisa :)