Hello crafty friends! It's Shimelle here and I have a story to tell of best friends and a simple way to start incorporating mixed media with your pages. It starts with Paige's Best Friends Forever cut file and that gorgeous rainbow stripe Paper 20 from Bloom Street!
My son will always tell you that he and Mickey Mouse are "BBBBBBBBBFFs" - best, best, bestest friends forever. I recently made a page with Paige's BFFS cut file and a variety of pictures of him and Mickey together over the years, and it made me realize I would love for the best friends motif to be something that has its place in my albums for every visit, just like meeting the main mouse is his highlight of every visit. I'm in luck, because Paige has several best friend designs to keep me going!
I started with Paper 20 (also available in the 12x12 Paper Pad) and brushed most of it with a layer of clear gesso to make a base for adding color. The orange background is a super easy, non-scary way to get started with mixed media! After the gesso dried, I used orange dye ink by stamping the ink pad directly onto my acrylic stamping block, though you could also use a craft mat or some plastic packaging. Then add a bit of water and mix for a wetter ink, much like watercolor paint. Grab some cling film from the kitchen and smoosh it (technical art term!) into something you can hold, then use it like a stamp - load up the ink and push it onto the gesso-treated paper! Let that dry, then come back when you are ready to stamp. This is why I use an ink pad instead of watercolors for this technique: now when I ink my stamps, it will be a perfect match and the stamped images are simply a more saturated shade of the exact same colour! I used the Acrylic Stamps for the floral designs around the curves of the title lettering.
I cut the Best Friends Forever cut file from smooth white cardstock and backed it first with two black and white photos, then with the ombre yellow floral Paper 14. To highlight the bright colors in my larger color photo, I matted it with Paper 02 and added a journaling card from the cut-apart side of Paper 17. I love how the shape of the cut file makes a perfect spot to nest the photo into the curves of the letters at the top right.
The 4-Page Sticker Book has an amazing page with strips of beautiful patterns in every color, so I used the red dotty strip to add a perfectly Mickey touch to my color scheme. Other finishing touches include Floral Die Cuts, heart Enamel Dots, and puffy circle stickers from the Truly Grateful Puffy Stickers. I like to include the letters for the corresponding Disney resort on my layouts, so I added 'DLP' in the Oh My Heart Thickers since these photos are from Disneyland Paris. We've managed to find Mickey in Paris, California, and Florida - we still have the three Asian resorts on our 'someday' list! You can see this entire page come together in this video:
Thank you so much for taking a look at my page and I'd love to hear from some of you who look adoringly at the beautiful mixed media pages out there but don't know where to start! I promise this technique is easy on the supplies, it's very forgiving, and not scary at all. Make sure you share your results if you take your first step into the inky background arena!
I started with Paper 20 (also available in the 12x12 Paper Pad) and brushed most of it with a layer of clear gesso to make a base for adding color. The orange background is a super easy, non-scary way to get started with mixed media! After the gesso dried, I used orange dye ink by stamping the ink pad directly onto my acrylic stamping block, though you could also use a craft mat or some plastic packaging. Then add a bit of water and mix for a wetter ink, much like watercolor paint. Grab some cling film from the kitchen and smoosh it (technical art term!) into something you can hold, then use it like a stamp - load up the ink and push it onto the gesso-treated paper! Let that dry, then come back when you are ready to stamp. This is why I use an ink pad instead of watercolors for this technique: now when I ink my stamps, it will be a perfect match and the stamped images are simply a more saturated shade of the exact same colour! I used the Acrylic Stamps for the floral designs around the curves of the title lettering.
I cut the Best Friends Forever cut file from smooth white cardstock and backed it first with two black and white photos, then with the ombre yellow floral Paper 14. To highlight the bright colors in my larger color photo, I matted it with Paper 02 and added a journaling card from the cut-apart side of Paper 17. I love how the shape of the cut file makes a perfect spot to nest the photo into the curves of the letters at the top right.
The 4-Page Sticker Book has an amazing page with strips of beautiful patterns in every color, so I used the red dotty strip to add a perfectly Mickey touch to my color scheme. Other finishing touches include Floral Die Cuts, heart Enamel Dots, and puffy circle stickers from the Truly Grateful Puffy Stickers. I like to include the letters for the corresponding Disney resort on my layouts, so I added 'DLP' in the Oh My Heart Thickers since these photos are from Disneyland Paris. We've managed to find Mickey in Paris, California, and Florida - we still have the three Asian resorts on our 'someday' list! You can see this entire page come together in this video:
Thank you so much for taking a look at my page and I'd love to hear from some of you who look adoringly at the beautiful mixed media pages out there but don't know where to start! I promise this technique is easy on the supplies, it's very forgiving, and not scary at all. Make sure you share your results if you take your first step into the inky background arena!
SUPPLIES: Patterned papers, stickers, stamps, die cuts, enamel hearts: BLOOM STREET; Puffy circle stickers: TRULY GRATEFUL; white cardstock; Die cut machine: Silhouette Cameo; Cut file: Best Friends Forever by Paige Evans
Location: London / Blog: Shimelle / Instagram: @shimelle / Facebook: Shimelle / YouTube: Shimelle Laine / Pinterest: glittershim
Love love love this! Those photos are SO sweet and loving the title... PERFECT for those photos!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThis is going to be one of my new favorites. The mixed media with the cut file. Of course the subject be so much fun. Great job, Shimelle.
ReplyDeleteLove this layout with the perfect cutfile for it! I haven't gotten brave enough to do any mix media yet.... working up to it with just stamping with my layouts right now.
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