Mixed Media Tag Tutorial

Hi everyone, I'm Christina.

As most of you know I'm a Tim Holtz addict! One of the many products I have is the ever popular Sizzix die The Lost Zombie. I knew when I received this die that there would be high hopes for him. You can switch it up for any occasion.

For the March Challenge I decided to create a mixed media tag using The Lost Zombie die.

Meet Rusty. He's got big plans! Tracking through the twigs, with a present and balloons. It's a bit windy, but it's not stopping him form enjoying the celebration.

After dressing the zombie, apply distress ink Walnut Stain around the edges for a tattered look.

Apply a thin coat of gesso to a #8 manilla tag. Let it air dry. It doesn't take long because there's not a lot of gesso on the tag.

Now the fun part begins....using any color of distress crayon, I used (Abandoned Coral and Vintage Photo) start colouring in random areas on the tag and blend with your fingers till the tag is covered. Hint: if the color is too dark, you can always buff it out with a baby wipe. Next place stencil (Dot Fade) on top and apply texture paste over in random areas of tag. Let it air dry.

Apply distress ink Broken China on top of Dot Fade, to give a hint of color.

For the zombie's (aka - Rusty) accessories I used Stampers Anonymous CraZy ThiNgs and the coordinating sizzix Framelits die, then coloured with distress crayons in Abandoned Coral, Feathered Peacock and Mermaid Lagoon.

This is one of my favourite dies - Sizzix thinlits die Twisted. It was used for the grass. 

The saying - Eat More Cake - is from the Stampers Anonymous - Handwritten Sentiments. I really enjoy playing with this set, because of the expressive lines.

Notice the brush strokes from colouring - it gives an effect of woodgrain in the background. It's pretty cool right?!

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial and if you want further inspiration check out the other talented design team members projects on this blog.

We want to see your creations for the March challenge: Birthday with a Twist Balloons. So, grab your tea/coffee, supplies out and use your imagination. The possibilities are endless!

Christina

Sea and Sky Art Journal Page

Hello, Deb here today to share an art journal page I made with our July challenge theme of Summertime with the twist of adding shells in mind.

I started out with a double page spread from my art journal.  I stamped some random background images along the bottom with a light colour of acrylic paint and then coloured the whole page with multiple colours of Distress inks in shades of blue.  The acrylic paint resists the Distress inks so that the stamped images still show.  I also discovered that I had some splotches of glue or medium on the page after applying the Distress ink but decided to just go with it!

Next, I made a 'wave' stencil from some acrylic packaging and coloured some waves onto my page with more Distress inks.  I then did some spritz and flick with water and dried it all.

More stenciling came next with a Tim Holtz Bubble stencil and a Southern Ridge Trading Company Net stencil in shades of blue Distress ink again.  I then spattered the page with Mermaid Lagoon Distress paint, white acrylic paint, Salty Ocean Distress stain and Heidi Swap White Color Shine.

I wrote the lyrics to a Dusty Springfield song around the edges of the page with a black Pigma Micron pen (the song is called Sea and Sky).  I added some collaged images, a piece of cheesecloth stained with green Distress ink and then stamped and clear embossed Tim Holtz's Compass Blueprint stamp and a quote from his Life Quotes stamp set.

Here are some closer shots of the clear embossed stamps.

 I added a small Mirrored Star colored with alcohol ink to the center of the compass image.

The collaged images were cut from a book I had in my stash, I added a small star and a mermaid charm (both coloured with alcohol inks) to the tall ship tag.

I shaded around all of the collaged images with Vintage Photo and Mermaid Lagoon Distress crayon.

And to complete the page, I added some real shells to each bottom corner.  I added some twine under the shells on the left hand corner,

and added more mirrored stars coloured with alcohol inks to each shell cluster.  You can also just see some more stenciling that I added behind the shells, I used the negative from a Tim Holtz Wildflower die to add some 'seaweed'.

Hope you've enjoyed seeing my art journal page and that you will feel inspired to join in our July challenge.

I can't wait to see what you make, happy creating!

Deb xo

Pale Blue Dot Art Journal Page

Hello everyone, Deb here today to share an art journal page that I made with you.  I just purchased some of the new Ranger Ink Tim Holtz Distress crayons and decided my art journal would be the perfect place to test them out.

I started out by colouring an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of paper with various colours of Distress inks in shades of blue, green and a touch of yellow.   I smooshed the colours onto the paper randomly and then added more ink using a blending tool where I felt it was needed.

Some background stamping came next using Tim Holtz's Ledger Script and Documented stamps and then I randomly added some texture paste through Tim Holtz's Flourish and Tracks layering stencil and a star stencil I had in my stash.

After the texture paste had dried, I covered the page with some clear gesso.  I knew from watching some demo videos about the Distress crayons that they blended better on a primed surface so decided to 'seal' the page with clear gesso before starting to colour with the crayons.  I then cut the paper in half to fit in my art journal (4 1/2" by 8 1/2") and coloured the embossed areas and the page edges with Distress crayon in the same colours as I had used on the background.

The Distress crayons are very creamy and blend together beautifully and the best part is that even though they are water reactive, they will not bleed or blend when wet unless you physically move the pigments with your finger, brush or blending tool.  No more having to worry about the colours bleeding or getting muddy if you accidentally spritz some water on your pages or when you add your sprays!

I then adhered the background pages into my art journal and while they were drying started to work on my embellishments.  I die cut the Sizzix Globe die from some cardstock coloured with various sprays in my stash (Prima Color Bloom and Lindy's Stamp Gang) and backed the globe die with a circle cut from watercolour paper that I'd applied a flat blue watercolour paint wash to.

I die cut the word 'cherish' using Tim Holtz's Handwritten Love die and then used the negative die cut as a stencil to stencil the word onto a piece of cardstock.  I added some Glossy Accents overtop of the stenciled word, coloured the background with Distress ink and fussy cut the sentiment.

I coloured another piece of cardstock with some Old Paper Distress stain and when dry stamped the words 'pale blue dot' onto it using an alphabet stamp set from Michaels called Whimsy Double and clear embossed the words.

I fussy cut each word individually and added some blue glitter glue over top of the embossed word 'blue'.  All of the elements were then mounted onto some dimensional foam tape and adhered onto the background in my art journal.

As a finishing touch, I randomly scattered some gold confetti stars from my stash here and there on the pages.

So that's my art journal page, I hope you've enjoyed reading about my process and that you will get a chance to play in your art journal soon!

Thanks so much for stopping by today and hope that you will join in with our current challenge here at Mixed Media Mojo, Springtime with the twist of Watercolors.

Have fun and happy creating!

Deb xo