Playing with mixed media

Hey all,
Hope you are all well and got some creative time for yourself over the past weekend.

When I was on Retreat recently I mentioned to a friend that I had a heap of photos from our stay in outback NSW that I wanted to put together in some sort of album but I wasn't keen on the old style mini album as there are just too many photos I wanted to include. So she suggested I do Smash album. I'd heard of the Smash concept but never really delved into it as I really struggle now with time for scrapping and my Project Life albums are way beyond behind!

Luckily for me a friend of mine owns a shop not too far away and even luckier another friend was doing a Smash class on Saturday. So I took myself down to the store to find out a little bit more about Smash albums. I'm so glad I did because it has opened a whole new world of possibilities to me and I can see Smashing in this house is going to become quite popular!

I love that this page was already in the album I'd chose for my first project. A sign maybe?

Something else I've been playing with over the past week that I've been wanting to do for a while but again...never enough time. I had a few nights where I just couldn't sleep (that creative mind never stops!!) so instead of fighting it I went with the flow and created these little mixed media canvases using a few different techniques on each one.

This first one I made for my scrapping room:

 To start the background off I used some stencils to add some texture and dimension to random areas of the canvas. I used two different stencils for this.

I then coloured the background with Gelatos blending them in as I went as these colours are already on a canvas and some bunting in my scrap room.

I wanted to play a little bit with Gelatos and chipboard so I painted the hour glass (top right hand corner) with gesso, then when it was dry I randomly added texture paste. Once that was dry I added the same colour Gelatos that I'd used on the background of the canvas and blended them in just with my fingers. I love the definition and dimension it has given the chipboard piece.

I used other chipboard pieces but left them white so as not to take the focus off the background or the featured hour glass piece then embellished the canvas with flowers and sweet little resin birds.
I found the colours of the flowers and birds a little too bright for what I wanted so I simply toned them down by dry brushing over them with gesso.

This second piece I made was a technique I hadn't tried yet but I LOVE the way it's turned out. I'll definitely be playing around with this technique more often:

Again I started on a plain mini canvas. This time I've used strips of white cardstock to build the foundation.
Having an idea in mind of a beach scene I stamped once piece of white cardstock in an orange ink and another in a turquoise ink, both with different background stamps.
Once they were dry I cut random strips from them and adhered them to the canvas.

For just a little more added visual interest I added some washi tape randomly around the canvas in colours that would compliment the picture once it was finished.
Then, to tone the whole thing down, I went over it with gesso and a dry brush leaving some areas untouched and some completely covered in gesso.

Once the gesso was dry I brought out my Gelatos again and started playing around with colours on the gesso'd cardstock strips. Starting with lighter colours then building up to darker colours and blending as I went gave the cardstock strips much more definition and dimension.

When I was happy with the look I cut out a sun and some cute little surfboards from the pre stamped cardstock I made in the beginning and adhered them to the canvas giving them the same treatment with gesso and Gelatos then I simply covered the whole canvas in a nice coat of Mod Podge. Too easy and I really love this effect!

This one I've had in mind for a while as a gift for a friend so all I had to do was pretty much get it out from my mind on to the mini canvas!

I have a friend who loves owls and the colour purple. So I've had this Steampunk owl earmarked for a project for her for quite some time.
I also had an idea of what I wanted to do.

To start off with, I adhered crunpled tissue paper to the entire canvas with Mod podge. once it was dry I simply adhered the chipboard owl and the chipboard numbers I've had in my stash for ages (a great way to use up old stash!!) straight on to the canvas and gave the whole piece a couple of coats of gesso.

I let this dry and got to work with Distress Inks and again Gelatos using sponges and my fingers blending the colurs as I went to achieve the distressed look I was after.

I added metal brads and again from my stash some round metal clips I've had for years I used as the owls eyes. For an extra layer of dimension I added some more chipboard cogs to some of the numbers. I embossed these with Distress embossing powders and again added metal brads to them.
To finish the piece off I coated the whole thing with Mod Podge.

So I now have a Steampunk piece for my friend. I hope she likes it!

I've had a ball playing around with different mixed media techniques. Not being one to Art journal I've found by using mini canvases I can try different techniques and end up with a piece I can either keep or gift to a friend.
It's a win-win thing all 'round.

Why not grab some mini canvases before the Easter holidays and give something different a try?
Who knows...you might even end up with finished Xmas gifts for family and friends.

Have a wonderful, safe and happy Easter everyone.
Chat again soon,
Sharryn
xx