Hi! Laura Wonsik here again and I have a couple of projects to share today, both using the "Use your Fingers" Artful Technique Challenge from this month from Vicki.
As a newbie to the mixed media world, I thought that this challenge would be a great chance to get a little "closer" to the product, to learn more about it and to experiment. When I sit down to work on a project, I sometimes feel overwhelmed by all of the choices I have when it comes to combining products. Should I use watercolor and art crayons or watercolor and texture glaze or watercolor and molding paste....the list goes on. Sometimes it's hard, especially as a beginner, to visualize how each of these combinations will turn out so I decided to make myself a little swatch guide.
I started with a 12x12 sheet of Vicki Boutin Foundations paper, my printed guide on 8.5 x 11 printer paper, and grabbed one of each of my mediums, including the pink version of each. I used the Cotton Candy watercolor brush, the light pink pigment powder, molding paste, texture glaze and a pink art crayon.
Here is what I learned in the process: molding paste dries the quickest and hardest, which means you have to work fairly fast. The colors are very subtle unless you add a lot, which is great because it widens the spectrum of color possibilities overall, and each medium affects the paper differently. I also really preferred the texture glaze in general because it's so creamy and moves so easily.
After I made my swatch, I used the leftover half circles to make a pocket page layout.
I also spent a little time working with my fingers and the watercolors alone, experimenting with flicking, dabbing, smearing and using the paintbrush with these techniques as well.
I love the way these half circles look stacked, but there wasn't really anywhere for them to go on the layout. So, I put them on a 3x4 plastic card to place and flip between my two pages.
I put a few pieces from the Wildflower and Honey collection on, including my favorite scalloped sticker piece with those fun holographic honeycombs. Last, I used the rainbow transparency paper that comes on top of the foundations paper pad- never forget to use your packaging! Vicki made it too beautiful to waste!
Here's a video of how this came together.
Did you make it through all 50 challenges? Be sure to at least try this one out!
