To some of us, there is nothing more nerve-wracking than attempting a scrapping style out of your comfort zone or more daunting than a blank canvas with infinite possibilities.
(OK, yes, I’m talking about me personally but I’m sure this applies to others as well!)
So in this blog series, I’m attempting to make Mixed Media less daunting by giving you (and me) some jumping off points. Where to begin with digi – mixed media scrapping? Right here for Mixed Media Beginners!
- Recap & Introduction
This month, I’m featuring doodles and handdrawn styled elements to go with the art in my photos. In the real world, I can draw and I have a heap of colours and mediums that I can use (and even more if I borrow from my daughter’s stash) but I don’t always love what I draw, and in paper scrapping, would be reluctant to draw or doodle on my page for fear of messing it up or then having to fix or hide it to still come out with a layout I like at the end. As any digiscrapper knows, designers pre-doodled art and Ctrl-Z (Undo command) make doodling on a digital mixed media page so much less intimidating!
So jumping in, I’ve grabbed a template like always. This month I have Fiddle Dee Dee’s Don’t Forget This {Dressed Down} and I’m using the top left one from the preview. For my doodley and arty stuff I’m using a mix of One Little Bird’s Everyday Tags & Words, Rebecca McMeen’s Cubbage and Coo Naturals and Birds as well as Micheline Lincoln’s Be *Remixed* Elements & Jot It Down v.1. The papers I use are all from Paula Kesselring’s Mixed Papers 2.
Here’s my first step, placing photos and some elements. Like every previous month in Mixed Media Beginners, I’m using a traditional digiscrap template to guide where I put my mixed media pieces, and like I talked about last month with stamps, I place the big elements, in this case, the large doodled tags, early in my process so I don’t have to work to squeeze them in at the last minute. As digiscrappers, with the luxury of being able to move any item on our page to the front or back of the page, just by moving it up and down the Layers Palette, means that I can still put things behind them if I want. I don’t even have a background paper yet but that’s one of the benefits of digiscrapping, and [spoiler alert!] I end up picking papers and dropping them in as my final step in scrapping today, and really if I hadn’t said that and shown these work-in-progress shots, I don’t think anyone would ever know just looking at my finished layout.
At this point I decided to switch up the photo placement a little by swapping the two top photos and that I would focus on getting the title and most of the painty and doodley elements placed. So my main doodles being tags lend themselves well to being journal or title spots so I’ve used one over a journal label at the bottom and the more scalloped circle style tag is going over a large flower on the template. If you know me by now, you aren’t surprised I have some cute painted bird elements from the store on the page already, Rebecca’s Cubbage & Coo Birds pack is one of my faves (and yep, I screengrabbed before I finished up the title work apparently – don’t worry, it all works out fine in the end ;-) ).
- The Finish Line
So here it is, finished off completely with Paula’s Mixed Papers 2 that have a watercolour effect, all ‘clipped’ in the doodled tag basic shapes and for the background. They instantly boost the mixed media vibe, like we discussed a few month’s back. I added a few extra dimensional elements from Micheline’s Be *Remixed* elements pack like the flair, wing charm and photo anchor as well as the focus definition. I added the journalling and a copper coloured glitter style from Mommyish’s DYD (Document Your December) 2016 Layer Styles pack to the star element layers that I kept from the original template. I also turned the doily layer off to keep the detailed paint at the bottom flat and uninterrupted.
This is a closer look at the watercolour art from Rebecca’s Cubbage and Coo pieces, it’s all beautifully detailed and textured and I’ve used blend modes on some of the layers so the marker lines from the doodles show through.
If you weren’t sold on digital mixed media scrapbooking before, I’m sure you’re at least starting to appreciate how easy and authentic the mixed media look can be when it’s all digital without any real risk or mess to clean up after! See you next month for more Mixed Media Beginners.
Lisa says
Yay for mixed media!