For about a year now, I’ve been actively trying mixed media techniques and products on the blog here, and venturing outside the box of my traditional scrapping style. With the Retiring Products Sale on until the end of March 2023, I wanted to highlight a few bargain mixed media products that are being clearanced to make way for more goodies in the store that would be great investments if you are starting out and looking to build or add to your digital mixed media stash.
Basic Brushes and Gesso / Impasto Paint – I started out Beginngers Mixed Media with just a template and some ‘nothing fancy’, fairly dense, linear brush strokes (that post and layout are here), and gesso has become one of my fave ways to add some dimension or a pop of ‘non-colour’ especially on dark backgrounds, like here. Watercolour style paint generally is pretty thin in real life so digi watercolour often has a lower opacity or density and is usually lets some of the background show through. If you want the paint to look thicker, you can just duplicate that paint layer once or a few times, after you’ve dragged it onto your page though. Just as a real world mixed media scrapper would use different paint mediums, the designers here have various types of digi paint, in both png file form and abr brush form so you can modify the size and colour, spacing, everything. Here’s some that caught my eye.
Doodles, Scribbles & Text Stamps – If you are like me and like the doodled look (like I experimented with here) but find the computer mouse (or worse, track pad!) is not your friend when it comes to drawing your own swirls, arrows, you name it, the designers have you covered. I also like the way a text stamp can work as a background layer or instead of journalling on a template and they also mean you can basically make your own ephemera on whatever type of paper you want. Again, these are able to be used like any real world doodle or stamp, and you don’t need to buy and store every colour of ink or Sharpie available, just in case. There’s something for everyone, regardless of whether you prefer formal and flourishy or grungey and handdrawn styles. Check these out.
Instant Paper Stacks & Collaged-Style Mixed Media Backgrounds – If you love the layered paper stack look or the collaged background look (like I’ve used here), but feel like coordinating the papers or shuffling them between template layers is just not something you have time for sometimes, here are some pre-made, perfectly coordinated products from the Retiring Sale that may interest you!
Get the Instant Photo stack look with these templates too
Stitches and Thread – I love sewing on real life mixed media pages but if I’m honest, I don’t have the patience for that, and threading a needle or getting the bobbin to feed on my sewing machine are not on my list of fave things to do during my crafty time, so messy and basic stitching gives that same look of detailed fastening and extra texture on a finished digi mixed media page.
So that was my scrapping time spent window shopping, I have got a few layout ideas though and I know there are some real time-saver products in there with the instant collaged look backgrounds, for example.
There are also some bundles that have some good whole packs of stitched borders in there, for example , but they aren’t on sale individually and this post is already long so I didn’t put all 79 tabs worth of store previews I had open intially into this post, (you’re welcome), so it is worth a look through the whole sale category but hopefully I’ve saved you some time and that means you can spend more time scrapping and playing with your digital mixed media products!
Monica says
Love this Justine! Thanks for the product ideas!