With each kit, I try to show off not only the kit but try and show you new techniques or fun things to do to really make the kits shine even more! Today, my friends, I want to show you how you can incorporate mixed media into your layouts without needing to be super technical or fancy!

There are two different ways that I applied mixed media here on this layout; I used a digital cut file as a stencil in the top, right corner then, I applied mixed media “free form” in the bottom, left corner and overlaid that with a digital cut file. In both instances I used Shimmerz textures pastes in peachy hues, Jane Davenport Mermaid Markers and watercolors (Jane Davenport and Peerless) to build and layer color. The texture pastes add a lovely bit of dimension to the flowers while the watercolor enables gradations of color and shadow.

The inspiration for this page was the colors in the patterned paper with flowers by Vicki Boutin in the patterned paper add on. I pulled all the elements from the Memory Making kits with peach and teal to begin and set to work. I had two main jumping off points; fussy cutting the peach frames and tying in the exclusive frames and fussy cutting the Vicki Boutin flowers. Working with that, I felt I didn’t have enough embellishments to proceed. And thus came about the digital cut files and mixed media. When you don’t have what you want, you can always create it!

You can see from this close up how the texture paste really adds some dimension and visual interest to the florals. Those Vicki Boutin flowers are sublime!!

My original plan, pre mixed media, was to have a plethora of frames on the page and fill the frames with pictures and embellishments. The frames were to be a mix of fussy cut from the exclusive patterned paper and those that come with the kit. As you can see, that evolved. The need to add my own “embellishing” resulted in the less space for the frames and a more condensed version of the original plan. I still think a layout full of frames would be really cool, what do you think?

I will warn you, the process video of the construction of this layout is LONG. I think it’s the longest video I have published… I need to coin my own phrase, the Suzanna Scrapbook Shuffle! LOL! You know I’m at a stand still in my creative process when things start moving around the page in indecisiveness. Or when I start drumming my fingers on the desk! There is a fair amount of that in this process video. And while I sped things up and omitted what I could, it’s still pretty lengthy. I won’t be offended with you skip through parts. But to really see the mixed media come to life, you need to watch the video. Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping in today!