Step By Step

I'm going to start doing a few step by step walk throughs of how I create my projects.  For the first one I'm going to show you how I create a background for a scrapbook layout.

1. I started off knowing I want to use some holographic heart stickers.  They are pinks, purples and blues and these prompt me with the colours of inks I want to use.  I also add a neutral grey and my trusty clear gesso.

2. I know I am going to be using water and that my card is regular thick card - it will warp.  You could use watercolour paper if you wish.  To help combat the warp I spread the thinnest layer of clear gesso over my card.  I use a pallet knife to spread it as thin as possible - you really don't need much.

3. When the gesso is dry I start flicking my mists.  I tend to start with the neutral colour.

4. I spritz the ink droplets with some water to spread the colour and give a more painterly look.

5. I then took my lilac mist and blue mist and flicked on some colour.  As I had already spritzed with water I didn't need to add more, but if the inks stop flowing and merging on the paper you can spritz with water again.

6. My pink mist is quite bold so I put a few drops in a pipette with some water to dilute the ink so it doesn't stand out too much from the other colours.  (I find pink and red splatters can look a little blood like, so I try to avoid this!)

7. I flicked the diluted ink direct from the pipette and it gave me bigger blobs.  I didn't mind the size of the blobs but I did feel they were a little bit too bright.

8. To soften the pink I rolled some kitchen paper over the top to absorb the excess ink.

9. Repeat steps 3-8 adding another 4 layers of inks splats, again spritzing with water to get the inks to flow across the page.

10. When the last layers are completely dry I added some flicks of the neutral ink without spritzing with water.  These ink drops stay as defined drops instead of spreading out.

11. Add stickers as randomly as possible, keeping an eye on the balance.  You don't want too many pinks on one side, try to spread them evenly.  Also, keep a few stickers spare for using as finishing touches on your finished layout.

So that is my process of making a background.  Come back tomorrow to see the finished layout...

Let me know what you think, and ask any questions you may have - I love to hear from you!  Thanks for stopping by!