Guest Designer post - Lulupu

My blog has been rather quiet this month.....not that I've been short of inspiration, just short of time to post all that I've been upto. First up, I was very happy when approached by Lulupu to create a layout and tutorial as a guest designer for their current challenge #29 - Vacation/Holidays/Travel Theme.

It's my first ever tutorial and I'm nervous as to how its going to be received. As always, I've created a mixed media layouts using texture paste, gesso, paints, spray the works :) and had lots of fun getting my hands dirty.

 

When I started making 12X12 layouts last year, I found it very overwhelming, now it’s one of my favourite. In today’s step by step, I'll share with you my process for creating a very simple grid sketch, mixed media layout using 5 photographs from one of my trips to Europe.

Step 1: Choose a background paper. Mine had vintage/Paris graphics on it which were quite prominent. Apply a thin layer of gesso using a roller/foam brush to get a fairly even application. Using a wet wipe (baby wipe) remove excess gesso from areas you want to highlight (On mine I removed gesso from the butterflies). Can you see the difference gesso creates?

 

Step 2: While the gesso is drying, on another plain paper, layer the photographs and PP.  I find grid layouts very easy specially for multiple photos. I changed some of the elements later, but this step always helps me as I change my mind a zillion times!

 

Step 3: Now comes the fun part. The gesso has dried, its time to bring the paints /sprays out. Using a pencil, draw a square to outline the grid inside which the photos are going to be placed. Use washi tape on the inside border of the square. Spray blue paint around the border (I used acrylic paint and a toothbrush as I don’t have the specific blue colour in a ready spray form). Add a border stamp using black archival ink, once the paint is dry. Any stamp with geometric pattern will do. Its to add interest and define the border a little more. Then go over the borders with texture paste mixed with Fevicryl cherry red pearl paint through a small dots stencil. Now, my background looks like this. The remaining texture paste was randomly applied around the border and inside the grid as I didn't want to waste it.

Here is a close up…… can you  see the 6 layers? PP, gesso, washi, spray, stamp and finally texture paste.  See, mixed media isn't so difficult , you can do it too.

 

Step 4: After everything is dry, the final step is to stick down all the different elements that were prepared in step 2. I changed some of the elements, used pop dots below the photographs and completed the journaling. Ta –da……… all done

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easy isn’t it. I hope you feel inspired to make a layout and share it with all of us at Lulupu

Current Challenge#29 - Vacation/Travel/Holidays Theme where only layouts are allowed.Take out your best picture form a Vacation /Holiday.. Or maybe some place you want to escape to this summer. Just scrap about it and show us!