Mixed Media Fun and Games

Deb here with you today. The term "Mixed Media" seems to be everywhere these days. It looks and sounds complicated, but it's really just an invitation to have some fun. I thought mixed media would be a good topic for todays Eureka and QKR Technique and Tutorial post. Mixed media simply refers to a project in which two or more different art mediums are used together. To you, that means pulling out all the various materials in your stash and letting your imagination run wild.

The project above is a 12 inch square canvas with 2 inch sides. The main image is a digital Eureka's Gladiola and Hummer. I also used rubber background stamps Filigree and Abstract Flower. Here's a list of products I used on this project:

Canvas
Digi Stamp
Rubber Stamps
Mod Podge
3 coordinated Printed Papers (in black and white, but any paper would do)
Folk Art Acrylic Paints
Stampin Up Watercolor Crayons
Distress Inks
Copic Stamping Illustration Paper
Copics
Smooch Spray

And here's how it came together:

Tear pieces of printed papers and adhere them with Mod Podge. Just paint a bit of MP on enough of your canvas to match the size of your paper piece, and then paint over that paper with another coat of MP. 

Repeat until as much of your canvas as you desire is covered.

Allow to dry. Then apply a thin coat of acrylic paint. Mix up the colors as you desire. I started pulling the blob of paint with a scrap of thick card stock, but soon had my fingers right in there.

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Note: Between these lines is what I did next, but I was not happy with it. You may want to skip these steps or think farther ahead than I did.

I then taped a piece of tissue paper to a piece of cardstock and printed my main image.

Then I colored with Copics and carefully - really carefully - adhered the tissue to the canvas with MP. A light hand with the top coat is essential - pat on the MP with the brush rather than the usual painting motion to avoid tearing the wet tissue.

I completed the canvas, then I stood back and had a look. Hmmm....too dark and too small. Back to the drawing board.

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Next, I printed the image again - larger and in grey tones - on Copic paper. I colored the flowers in lighter colors, cut out the flowers by hand (leaving the bird on the table) and adhered the paper with Mod Podge over the first image. You can still see some of the leaves of the first one.

Better, but now it's too bright. So I applied a thin layer of beige arylic paint and sponged brown Distress Ink over the edges.

Now it was a bit too dark, so I simply wet an old washcloth and sponged off a bit of the distressing. Much better. Was this process stressful? No, it was fun - like a science experiment. I knew I could cover the whole thing with acrylic paint and start over if needed.

Scribbles of Stampin Up Watercolor Crayon were added to the upper corners and blended out with a wet paint brush and my good old stained fingers. You can see here the left is blended and the right is the crayon.

Then I inked up the background stamps with bown and gold Distress Ink and randomly stamped, using partial impressions around the edge. (Sorry, forgot to take photos of these next steps - too excited)

Next, I mixed a little of the metallic acrylic paint with a bit of water and added some to the very top of my canvas. Then I stood the canvas up and thumped it a couple of times on my craft table to get the wet paint  to run.

Then I mixed a little Peeled Paint Distress Ink re-inker with water, dipped a paint brush in it, and splattered my canvas.

Finally, I sprayed the whole thing randomly with Smooch for a little sparkle. Another time I would leave this step out as it creates quite a glare on the canvas.

And that's it for this week's Eureka and QKR T&T tutorial. As always, you are welcome to visit my personal blog for more fun and games.