This layout's home is in my 2018 unPlanner. To see more of my unPlanner - this year and the years previously, see the tabs at the top of my blog.
Scroll down past the video to see the supplies used and tips and tricks, and observations I made in the process of watching back the video. I hope you enjoy! :)
Supplies Used (In the order I use them in the video, mostly)
- Mixed media paper
- pencil
- A fat round paint brush (I like the ones that hold lots of paint and water for this technique.) Using fingers to paint might work fine too.)
- water
- heat gun (optional)
- acrylic paint (Permanent Violet Dark by Golden, Bahama Blue by Deco Art, Americana line, Deco Art Phthalo Turquoise and Phthalo Green-Blue, Artist's Loft Neon Pink and white)
- Various doodled-style stamps (I used Paperbag Studios rubber stamps
Doodles and Daters and others.)
- Distress Oxide Inks by Ranger (Use inks that show up well on dark paper and paint.)
- Staz-On black ink
black cardstock
- sewing machine (or hand stitch some touches? Or have you seen the
Sew Easy tool? So fun - comes in lots of different designs, too!)
- metallic pink thread
- double-sided scotch tape
- photo
- acrylic block
- dictionary paper
- scissors
- word art (I made my own) Scrapbooking 3d letters would look great too. Love
THESE.
- glue stick
- black Sharpie (or some other permanent black marker) - extra fine tip
- Scrapbook paper for the tag, or make your own paper, or use those delectable artPOPS by Kristin Peterson of
AlteredStatesStudio.
- reinforcement stickers
- glue dots (or other strong glue)
- paint pens or opaque gel pens
- Last, but not the least, my journaling bible.
Tips and observations about my project:
- When applying colour, add dimension by creating darker shades and lighter ones of the same base colour. (For this layout, I chose dark purple as my main colour, adding water or white paint to lighten up the colour.)
- Using black elements or other contrasting colours is always an easy trick when creating a focal point. Having a focus point helps our eyes to zoom in on one thing first, then to the secondary and further elements. Our brain likes the order it brings.
- Stamp clusters of detail in three spots (triangular formation) over the two-page layout. If you're creating a similar design just on one square sheet of paper, you can still apply this rule of thirds and clustering trick.
- I use double-sided scotch tape to easily attach unmounted rubber stamps to an acrylic block.
- Apply white paint or bright colours in areas where it feels too dark or muddy. It brightens things up.
- To choose stamps, think what you want to portray, but also the scale and pattern of each, I like to use some intricate designs, paired with bolder and larger. Also think stripes, circles, triangles. Opposites.
- Baby wipes are a fast and easy way to quickly clean your stamps, or smudge areas you want blended in more, or to pick up too much colour in places.
- I had trouble with the neon pink not popping enough on those finger-painted circles, so I should have put down a white paint first. My experience with neon paints is that they are quite transparent. If you know of a paint that is opaque, message me. I'd love to find some!
***Warning ahead: reading further might cause you to go down a rabbit hole. Yep. Classic Alice.
As I typed my tip above, I googled "opaque flourescent acrylic paint", and discovered an amazing article about some tricks to create an opaque look! See
HERE! It does seem like a lot of work, haha, so, let's just get a product that does everything for us, correct? ;)
- Use an apron or old clothes when you do the splattering. I got my favorite summer dress full of paint, and my glasses as well...lol
- I got my bible out, finger-painted around the bible verse I'm meditating on, and then copied the words to the back of the journaling spot that sits under the photo.
And that is that! What enormous fun I've had in creating the project, the video, this blog post, everything. Now back to my house, which has suffered a little in the past few days...Please leave a comment if you enjoyed the project, or if you have any questions. I welcome all feedback. Or just comment to say hi! :)
♥♥♥ Anna ♥♥♥
