Mixed Media Madness Hop | You’re A Treasure

I don’t really consider myself to be someone who does mixed media, but when I found out about this hop I thought it might be fun to give it a go. At the simplest, mixed media just means using more than one medium on your project, so really most of what I do is actually a kind of mixed media. Combining alcohol markers with coloured pencils? That’s mixed media! But I wanted to do ‘proper’ mixed media on my project for this hop whilst still keeping it along the lines of my usual, clean style. Here’s what I came up with.

I started by using a Sizzix Heart Framelit to cut a piece of thick card. I think this is chipboard but I’m not actually certain of the definition there so I could be wrong. In any case it seemed more appropriate for mixed media than normal card!

I wanted my heart to have a base layer of red so I gave it a coat using one of my Gansai Tambi watercolours. An acrylic paint would be more vibrant, but I didn’t mind the more muted colour of the Gansai Tambi. I dried the heart with the cooler setting of my WOW! Dual Speed Heat Tool.

Next I pulled out a bunch of texture stamps from Blank Page Muse along with several inks and just started randomly stamping on the heart to add pattern and texture to it. I worked in layers and kept building up. The stamps I used were Sequin Waste Light, Faded Page Text, Concentric Circles, and Small Woodgrain Pattern, and the inks were Hero Arts Ombre Ink Pad in Light Ruby to Royal Red, Altenew Ruby Red Crisp Dye Ink, and a little Delicata Rose Gold Shimmer Ink.

I wanted to further embellish my heart with the tissue paper embossing technique. The paper I used was actually crepe paper, which already has some texture rather than the smooth tissue paper, but either works. I put Simon Says Stamp Craft Tacky Glue onto the left hand side of my heart and adhered the red crepe paper onto it, moving it around with my fingers to build up some more texture. I then tore off the overhanging pieces.

I applied embossing ink to the crepe paper using a Scrapbook.com Sponge Dauber, plus a little bit to the open part of the heart. I then heat embossed with WOW! Chocolate Caramel Pearl Embossing Powder. This powder looks different depending whether it is embossed on a light or dark background. I was anticipating it being the reddish brown that it is on white, whilst I guess I should have expected it to go the more gold colour that it is on black. Whilst it wasn’t what I’d anticipated I liked the result, and added some more of it around the edge of my open heart.

The stamping I had done prior to adding the crepe paper had faded back more than I would have preferred, and whilst it was adding texture to the design it wasn’t as prominant as I would have liked. I decided to add more layers and this time heat emboss them. I started with more of the Sequin Waste Light which I embossed with a Love From Lizi embossing powder in Perfect Plum. I then added Faded Page Text and clear heat embossed it.

As I was happy with how my heart looked I set it to one side and started working on my background. I’d seen an example from Kim Dellow which used torn book pages in the background and in really liked the way it looked. I didn’t have any books going spare (and I think I’d have a hard time tearing them even if I did) so I decided to mimic it to get the look without harming any books in the process!

First I tore some scrap paper to create a torn edge mask, and arranged that on my card base. I stamped the Faded Page Text stamp into the open space with Catherine Pooler’s Twilight ink. I then ink blended the same ink with a Stencil Brush to create the background for the text. Once I was happy I lifted the masks and shifted along, repeating the process until I had the faux paper strips in a row all across the background.

I wanted to add an impression of dimension to the faux paper, so I used a pencil and paper stump to add some shading within the ink blended areas so that it would look as if they were set slightly behind the card base.

I pulled in Altenew’s Build-A-Flower: Sakura Blossom for my sentiment. I wanted to heat emboss with WOW! Chocolate Caramel Pearl Embossing Powder to match the embossing on the heart. As I mentioned earlier the powder appears differently depending whether it’s on a light or dark background. In order to make sure it would match the heart I stamped with Versafine Onyx Black ink to give a dark background for the embossing powder. Finally I popped up the heart on foam tape and the card was complete!

Whilst this is pretty different from anything I’ve made before I had a lot of fun with it! It was a time consuming progress with all the layers and elements involved, but I really like the end result. And I think I managed to pull off combining mixed media with a clean style – what do you think? Don’t forget this is part of a hop, so make sure to jump over to YouTube and join in!

Love,

Lady Joyful

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Challenges:

Classic Design Challenge – Anything Goes

Crafter’s Castle Challenge – Anything Goes

Creative Confetti – Keep It Simple (CAS)

Digi Choosday – Anything Goes

Double Trouble – Embossing

Dragonfly Dreams Challenge – Anything Goes

STAMPlorations Summer Challenge – Anything Goes

The Sisterhood of Crafters – Masculine

Through The Craft Room Door – Anything Goes

WOW Embossing Challenge – Masculine