Insects Mixed Media Layout

Hello everyone and welcome! I was so happy this morning to see my Frameworks Mosaic tutorial picked as one of Tim Holtz blogworthy links. Perfect way to start the day! Thank you Tim and Mario. Check out the post to see the other linked projects, so much inspiration.

 

We have a new CSI:Color, Stories, Inspiration challenge, the last one of this month. Darkroom Door is one of the sponsors this month. Here's the case file:

I did a mixed media layout:

 

The layout is about insects and little creepy crawlies, and how interesting they all are, and cute, even a dead moth deserves a little kiss. They are interesting to the point that he has no fear of spiders, which is not such a great thing considering they might be poisonous. He says that he is partly a Spider-man so all spiders are his friends. Not even a bite from a huge termite ant could do anything to reduce this fascination. On this photo, something is hiding in the grass ready to be inspected. From the evidence I used: mixed media, gesso, scribbles, raindrops, animal accents, something wet and something sheer, and from the testimony, I made a vellum pocket for my journaling.

I started out with a sheet of watercolour paper and covered it with gesso. While the gesso was still wet, I pressed a paper embossed in a new Tim Holtz woodgrain folder into it, making impressions. When the gesso was dry, I painted it with watered-down Broken China Distress Paint, also adding some green.

The background was scribbled with a white and a black pen. The white scribbles are pretty faint, but add a fun extra texture.

I stamped the background with different stamps, most of them from Darkroom Door, a script texture stamp, butterflies and dragonflies, flowers, grass, birds and words fitting with the theme. The stamping was done with Archival Inks (Leaf Green, Tree Branch and Jet Black). The gorgeous 'A' here is a new Stampers Anonymous stamps, I am sure I'll be using it a lot since 'A' is the first letter of both my own and my son's name. We see it as 'our letter'.

When the stamping was done, I applied Wendy Vecchi White Embossing paste through a few different stencils, to add more detail.

I die cut a Pocket Envelope from vellum and placed my journaling inside. It is the same die as I used in my Botanical Pocket Page tutorial earlier this week, but with a totally different look here. A bit of cheesecloth was placed under the photo and I scribbled a circle around the photo with a white and a black pen. 

This is one of my favourite quotes and I have used it before. The great arrows were die cut with a brand new Tim Holtz Sizzix die, Artful Arrows. I like to use arrows and was happy to get this new die. It has a lot of different arrows and since it is a steel rule die you can cut them from thick material too. I didn't use much of the pink in the case file, only a few rhinestones.

 

Love this cute little bird and the new Tree Branch ink by Wendy Vecchi is a great light brown.

At the bottom of the page there is a flower garden made with Darkroom Door stamps and a stencil from Wendy Vecchi.

 

Thank you for looking! I hope you'll get some time to be creative this weekend. I am going to finish a tutorial that will be up on the blog next week, something a little different.

 

Anna-Karin

 

Supplies:

Surfaces: Daler & Rowney Watercolour Paper; Ranger Specialty Stamping Paper; vellum

Dies: Sizzix: Pocket Envelope, Artful Arrows

Embossing folder: Sizzix: Drapery & Woodgrain

Stamps: Darkroom Door: French Script Texture, Photography, Gum Trees, Bold Blossoms, Wildflowers Vol. 1, Wildflowers Vol. 2, New York Vol. 1, Love Birds, Full Bloom Vol. 2; Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz: Tiny Things, Bird Feathers, Classics #14

Ink: Ranger Archival Ink: Leaf Green, Tree Branch, Jet Black

Paint: Distress Paint: Broken China, Mowed Lawn

Medium: Wendy Vecchi Stampers Anonymous White Embossing Paste; Ranger Dina Wakley White Gesso

Stencils: Wendy Vecchi Stampers Anonymous: From the Garden; Prima: Raindrops 6 x 6

Embellishments: Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Label Letters; rhinestones