Mixed Media Fun

Mixed media can be a lot of fun!

It can also mean a lot of different things.

Here is a piece I completed this week

with some steps to show you how I made it.

 I began with a simple 8" x 10" piece of wood I purchased at Walmart. 
We are limited in shopping options where we live. 

Thankfully Walmart has a little bit of everything.

I used Folk Art paint that I had on hand,

but I expect it probably also came from Walmart.

I painted a complete cover with the darker pink.

I forgot to cover my board in gesso first.

Doing that helps your paint not absorb into

the wood, which causes you to use more paint

to get good coverage.  

I put the lighter pink on a styrofoam plate and used

a wide brush to stroke the paint on here and there.

The streaky brush strokes give your piece texture.

 Impatient person that I am,

I went straight to the texture paste

and some stencils I like a lot!

These tiny ones called Dinky Stencils

are ATC size. I use them all the time.

I used a palette knife to spread the texture paste

through the openings directly on to the

board. Just spread them on like cake icing.

Be sure to clean off your stencil before that

paste turns into concrete. 

 I used four different stencils.

Notice how I positioned the heart stencil

off the side of the board.

The brick wall stencil - I spread the texture

paste only in the middle of the stencil. 

Same thing with the larger bales-type stencil

in the lower right corner.

There is no rule that you must use the

entire stencil. It's your project. 

You make the rules.

 So I forgot to take a few photos, but let me give

it to you in a nutshell what I did next.

* I used a couple other colors of acrylic paints,

squeezed a bit of each onto a plate,

then used my fingers to spread that color

randomly onto the board.

Some horizontal smears,

some vertical smears. 

* I thought I covered up too much of the numbers,

so I took a small brayer and rolled white paint

across the top of the board.

Up and down and across.

I focused on the numbers.

Sloppy brayer-ing gives more texture.

* Then I had too much white on the hearts,

so I used a brush to put more pink back onto

the hearts and give more balance to the piece.

 Our art journal prompt in 

Zentangle All Around

this week was to use part of an old book

page or a piece of sheet music on our journal spread.

* I opted to make my board count as my art

journal this week and added bits

of two separate sheet music paper in the open

areas of my board.

 In case you don't know how to do that -

it is a super simple process.

I hand tore the paper edges so they could

get a better grip on the board.

I coated the back of them with 

Golden Gel Mediums - Soft Gell (Matte) 

and placed them where I wanted them to go on 

the board.

Then I used a wide paint brush and brushed

more gel medium over the tops,

making sure to seal down those edges.

As it dried I painted on one more layer.

Just to be sure.

Then let it dry completely.

There are many kinds of gel medium on the

market. I prefer the matte because it dries . . .

well, it dries matte. Not glossy.

And this particular brand is not sticky once dry.

I can also use it as page prep in my journaling Bible. 

 * When I was digging through my collage drawer

looking for sheet music, I came across some

cute dinner napkins that my friend Cindy gave me.

I hand tore a section of flowers from one napkin.

I couldn't paint the gel medium on the back of the

napkin piece because it would have torn.

So I painted the medium directly onto the board,

tapped the napkin piece down into it,

and painted more gel medium over the top,

sealing down the edges.

I think I actually did three layers on the napkin piece.

Just to be sure.

* I wanted to add some more 'layers' so I used

another stencil and stamped purple and green through it 
to place some random sections of dots and leaves.

 * Those music sections were too white,

so I smeared some watered down hot pink

acrylic paint over them. 

Still not finished.

Not 'complete' enough.

* I used a micron pen and tangled some lines

and dots around the bricks in the brick wall. 

* I used a squeeze bottle of liquid pearls and made

lines in the bales section to make it look more

tangled. 

* A couple different size medicine bottles

made excellent stamps to layer some black

circles around the board.

* I used the flat bottom edge of a binder clip 

to make some blunt rectangles of 

black here and there.

Actually, I realized this technique would

work better on flat paper, than it did

on bumpy board. 

* I used a couple different colors of liquid pearls

to dot the flowers in the napkin, and the centers

of the bales section.

* I used more liquid pearls to make the dots along

the edges of the board. 

* Lastly I used my fingers again to make some of

the white areas a little brighter.

And called it done.

Before I messed it up.

If you scroll back up to the top,

you can see what a long way this project came

from where it began. 

What a super fun process!

 Walmart. It's where the cheapo boards are.

In the craft section. 

It was the only thing I purchased for this project.