eP Emerging Mixed Media Spread

As you know if you have been following my recent mixed media adventures (and huge thanks to you for doing so), I started altering a child's board book for the February Get Altered project at eclectic Paperie. Today I am sharing the third double page spread, still following the theme of flight established when I did the cover. For the first two, I used birds so this time I decided to switch it up a little and use one of my new stamp sets.

The pages were already gessoed...so glad that I gessoed all them at once. With Golden gel medium, I adhered two large torn pieces of Idea-ology Melange Tissue Wrap, one on each page. Once dry, slightly watered down white gesso was brushed over the top of the tissue wrap to tone it down a little. Then Tumbled Glass, Broken China, and Peeled Paint Distress inks were applied to the entire page in a random fashion, blending where the colours met and overlapped. Water was flicked over the Distress inks to create splash spots (which is fun to say).

Out came some stencils from my ever-increasing collection. I applied Vintage Photo and Broken China DI over Dylusions Letter Jumble , TCW's Mini Tile Texture, Rustic Paint, and Mini Tri Mosaic stencils. The tree branches were stencilled using the off-cut of the die cut branch. The Penny Black Winter Berries stamp was applied to the branch ends with Peeled Paint. Wendy Vecchi's White embossing paste was applied with a palette knife through the Dylusions Chequered Dots stencil and allowed to dry thoroughly.

The branch was die cut from the Graphic 45's A Ladies' Diary love letters page, inked with Vintage Photo DI, and adhered to the spread. A Faber-Castell Big Brush pen outlined it on the page, using my finger to smudge as I went along. A Sepia Micron pen outlined the branches on the patterned paper. Pan Pastel coloured the embossing paste and Faded Jeans Distress Marker was applied to the edges and walked out with a water brush. An Internet chrysalis (cocoon) image was printed twice and fussy cut. The top layer was pooched up using styluses and then popped up on the bottom layer with foam dots in the center only. Faded Jeans DI was applied around the edge and Glossy Accents was brushed over the top for shine. A layer of cheesecloth was adhered under the chrysalis before it was "hung" from the branch.

 To add to my theme and the texture in the background, Hero Arts letters were combined to stamp the word "Change" repeatedly with Vintage Photo DI. The leaves from the Dylusions Luscious Leaves stencil were inked near the branches using Peeled Paint DI and outlined with Distress marker.

While things were drying, three butterflies from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's Butterfly stamp set were stamped onto watercolour paper. I was not looking for perfect images (which is tricky with cold press watercolour paper because of the uneven texture). Scattered Straw, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door, and Dusty Concord Distress inks were smushed onto my craft sheet and then applied to the butterflies using a waterbrush. Love that imperfect blended look. They were fussy cut and edged with Black Soot DI and marker on the edges. White acrylic paint dots were added for more interest. Two of them were given pink wire antennae.

A ticket shape was handcut from white cardstock and colorized with the same three distress inks. The sentiment from Donna Downey's Empowered Words collection was stamped in the center. After the ticket was adhered it was doodled on and around to embed it into the background.

 A section of vintage lace from my stash was adhered next to the large butterfly. Tissue tape was inked and adhered in a few places for more texture, as were drywall tape bits.

 To bring more black to the left side, an Idea-ology flash card was torn, had Black Soot stain applied to the top and then water sprayed over that. The left side of the B card was inked with the three warm Distress ink colours. The card was stapled, adhered to the page, and outlined with the FC Big Brush pen. More doodling with this pen and the smaller Micron helped add pattern and pull the pages together. Words (fly, beginning, chrysalis, new, becoming) were hand printed here and there and then blended into the background with the old white gesso on the finger (tap, tap) trick ;)

 The finishing touches were to add a piece of the torn holes from the watercolour paper onto the page, ink it, and stamp the word change over it; to water down some white gesso to make lid rings; to date stamp the spread; and to stamp the dotty pattern using Vintage Photo and a TH Bitty Grunge stamp. Peacock Feathers and Salty Ocean Distress inks were used to darken the edges of the pages.

The photos below show the top left and bottom right corners of the spread...and serve as a little eye-candy reward if you made it this far :)

Although I use a lot of product and steps when I am doing mixed media, it is not necessary, especially if you are just starting to experiment with this art form. When I had less, I used less so please don't feel that you don't have enough "stuff" to do this. Use what you have and add as much or as little as you like. That's part of the fun and adventure...no rules, just play.

Thanks for visiting with me today. It's always a treat for me when you stop by. If you are curious about some of the products I have used, click on the thumbnails below to go directly to the catalogue item at the eclectic Paperie shop. As for me, I'm going to clean up so I can start all over again. Can't wait!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Distress Ink Pad - Vintage Photo	Distress Ink Pad - Tumbled Glass	Distress Ink Pad - Scattered Straw	Distress Ink Pad - Salty Ocean	Distress Ink Pad - Peeled Paint
Distress Ink Pad - Peacock Feathers	Distress Ink Pad - Dusty Concord	Distress Ink Pad - Broken China	Distress Ink Pad - Barn Door	Distress Ink Pad - Black Soot
Tim Holtz� Distress� Markers - Spice Marmalade	Tim Holtz� Distress� Markers - Faded Jeans	Tim Holtz� Distress� Markers - Black Soot	Unity Stamp Company - Empowered Words (Donna Downey)	Balzer Designs - Butterflies Stamp Set
Wendy Vecchi - Studio 490 - Embossing Paste - White	Idea-ology - Tim Holtz - Tissue Wrap - Melange	Dylusions Stencil 5x8" - Luscious Leaves	Dylusions Stencil 5x8" - Letter Jumble	Dylusions Stencil 5x8" - Chequered Dots
PanPastels - Basic Foundation Colours - 7 Color Set	Distress Stain - Black Soot