Creating texture to a layout with ease

With the weather here in Adelaide being cold and miserable it has been the perfect weather to hide away in my scrap area and create.

Now.. I have been busy with many layouts for designs team work using all sorts of scrap booking paper ranges. Just for something different I wanted to just get away from what I have been creating with and make a major mess. So with that all in mind I decided that I wanted to create a layout using no patterned paper at all. 

So here's the full layout once I had finished it.

I love being able to create a base for my layouts. Most of all I love being able to create dimension to the base of my layout. To help me be able to achieve this I have used some Canson  410gsm Pasteboard as the base for my layout.

 Now it was a process that I did over two days to create the base due to the wet weather here. I started with using some Pebeo modelling paste and a leaf mask that I had in my stash. I was kinda rough with the application of the texture paste as I didn't want a perfect finish. Once the texture paste was dry I then gave the whole thing a coat of gesso to give it a good even base to paint over. 

I wanted to be able to create matching embellishments too so I have used some Canson water colour paper to create them. I have kept the colours a little bolder than the base I I didn't want them to get lost in the background. Plus because I was mixing up my own colours I was able to get the colours to match perfectly with the photo I wanted to use.

You can see the texture here that I have created using the modelling paste. The leaves have also been enhanced with how I have applied the paint. I have achieved the enhanced look by firstly applying the light aqua colour I mixed up. Whilst the paint was still wet I then applied a wash of slightly darker aqua. I then blended it all slightly using more water and hat my heat gun drying it as I applied more water.   

As you can see it almost give the base a glow look to the leaves with the lighter colours peaking through. 

Because of the random painting stokes I have done to create the base before I cut out the vines with the leaves they have a tonal mix of colour on them. To finish them off I have randomly stamped a graph stamp on them. This has helped the leaves stand out from the base colour I have created also. 

I loved being able to add so much dimension both with the Pebeo Modelling paste and with the embellishments I had created for this myself.

Once all the main elements of this layout were adhered I started on the embellishing to finish it off.  To tie it all together I have added a little bit of grey and white elements with paper doilies and a couple off graph journal cards I have printed with some digital stamps. 

So when it came time to add in some feminine touches I played around with some of my stamps and some water color paper to create some flowers. Once I had hand cut them I had a play with a few of them with some Mepxy markers to see what would work best with the stamp I had chosen. In the end I have just gone with highlighting the shadows that were on the stamp itself. I found that too much colour with the dove grey staz on was just too much for this layout. I then highlighted the edges randomly of some of the petals with a darker colour so that is slightly bled and then blended it with the lighter colour just slightly.  This has add just a hint of colour which was all I was looking for. 

Products used -

Pebeo Studio Modelling Paste  

Pebeo Studio Acrylics Standard Colours 100ml tubes

-        Colour No. 48 Primary Yellow 

-        Colour No. 49 Primary Cyan 

-        Colour No. 26 Mars Black 

-        Colour No. 41 Vivid White 

Princeton Real Value Set Green Value Pack Camel Brush Set


Pebeo One Coat Gesso

Mepxy Brush Markers 
- V15 Rosebud
- P00 Light Violet

Princeton Catalyst Contours 21 Green Contour  Size 21 

Canson Water Colour Pad A4 

Canson 410gsm Pasteboard 

It has been a while since I have made so much mess creating and must admit I am looking forward to to getting creative like this again soon.

 It was quite refreshing creating my own paper and layout base. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Looking forward to sharing with you all again. 

TFL, Michelle Wallace