Demystifying Mixed Media

Here I am once again with another class towards the Altnew Educators Certification Program. For this class I chose Demystifying Mixed Media taught by Tania Ahmed. I have a love-hate relationship with mixed media. I love the look and all the texture you can get but I hate the usually messiness of the techniques to get the look and texture. 

These are the six cards I made during the lessons for this class. I have to be honest and say I still have a love-hate relationship with mixed media but I am happy with the results I got with each of these cards.

Card 1 - Embossing Paste Textured Background

For this lesson we used stencils, embossing paste, and watercolor paints to create the background for this card. I watercolored the floral image from Altenew In the Woodland set and then die cut it. Once the background was dry, I stamped the sentiment from the same set in the lower corner. Tania used a cool looking spider tulle ribbon to embellish her card but since I didn't have that I used some of Altenew's metallic thread behind my image.

Cards 2 & 3 - Gesso Ghost Background

For this lesson the cardstock panel was coated with gesso. When it was dry Tania used watercolor paints for hers but since I have so many of the Lindy's Magical powders I decided to use those for my background. Once the background was dry I placed the Altenew Leaf Drop stencil on the background and used a baby wipe to gently wipe over the open areas to remove and lighten the design.

When I was happy with the background I used a circle die to cut out a circle in the backgroun panel. That circle was temporarily placed on a card base and then stamped with Altenew Sweet Pea stamp. We then colored in the stamped image with a white colored pencil to highlight the image.

When stamping the image on a card base, I messed up the first try and hated to toss it out. Fortunately the panel with the circle cut covered up my stamping boo-boo so a second card was created using the messed up card front. Amazingly the circle I had cut was the perfect size to fit Altenew's Circled Greetings: Thanks die. The sentiment strip was stamped from Altenew's Gracious Peonies set on black cardstock and heat embossed with white embossing powder.  

Card 4 - Creating Mixed Media Backgrounds

To create this background we used the letter dies from Altenew Fine Alphabet die set and randomly placed them on a cardstock panel and cut them out. Once the panel was die cut we used Altenew Fresh Dye ink Autumn Blaze and swiped the ink on the panel then spritzed it with water to "blend" the ink out. Tania use shimmer spray instead of water. Then using a brayer and some turquiose paint we add the blue in a few areas. Once we were happy with that we then used embossing ink to dab in random places. We poured on gold embossing powder and then wiping off some of the embossing powder to allow the background colors to show. After it was heat embossed we then added some more of the blue paint using the brayer again. After the panel was complete it was then adhered to another white cardstock panel.

The sentiment is from Altenew's One Go: Solid Sentiment Strips Betterpress Plate and die.I wrapped the panel with some of the Altenew Metallic thread and adhered it to a card base using foam adhesive strips.

And finally cards 5 & 6 - Book Text Collage

I think these 2 are my favorites from this class. In this lesson we used made a collage on the background. Tania used old books that she tore pieces of the pages to create her background. Since I didn't have any old books to use I had to find an alternative and instead used some Tim Holtz Idea-ology Collage Papers - Archives in my stash to create my collage background.

After the collage medium was dry the cardstock panels were coated in a thin coating of gesso. After drying the panels with a heat tool we used Altenew Fresh Dye inks and put the ink on our surface and added water then dipped the panels into the ink. Drying in between the ink layers to get more texture and movement. Because I have taking a number of classes with Tiffany Solario on ink sprays, once I was happy with the way the panels looked I had to use my water bottle and flick some droplets, as well as splatter with some white on to the panels to create even more texture to them.

The panels were stamped with the floral image from Altenew Sulfur Cosmos and heat embossed in gold. The left panel sentiment was stamped and heat embossed in black and the right panel I used another of the sentiments from Altenew One Go: Solid Sentiment Strips Betterpress plate and die. They were then layered onto colored cardstock using foam adhesive before being adhered to the card bases.