Hi there! Today, Hero Arts is celebrating the release of their new Mixed Media Catalog with a blog hop, and we are hoping to inspire you to step outside of your comfort zone. You should have arrived here from Debi Adams, and your next stop is Ilina Crouse. I will admit, my initial thought was that Mixed Media was a bit too far of a departure from my normal style, but guess what I learned? For a project to be considered “mixed media,” it only needs to mix more than one medium-embossing, painting, stamping, ink blending, pastes, pearls… something that we do frequently as cardmakers!! I combined some of the new products from the Mixed Media Catalog with some older products and art supplies to create this card/tag combo, so let’s get started with the details!
Both of my projects feature the Floral Silhouettes stamps as the base of the projects. I love using colored pencils on vibrant colored cardstock, and thought it would be great fun to combine the Hero Arts Liquid Watercolors with white gouache to do some painting on Nautical cardstock. I stamped the images from Floral Silhouettes onto Nautical cardstock using Unicorn White pigment ink, then created a lovely pastel palette by mixing gouache with Strawberry, Mulled Wine, and Jungle Mist liquid watercolors. The opacity of the gouache makes it stand out perfectly on the dark navy blue cardstock.
Painting with gouache is a bit different than my normal painting technique. I painted the images flat, then added highlights to create definition on the individual areas, which is a bit of a departure from my usual technique of adding shadows to my images. The Floral Silhouettes stamps are solid silhouettes, so they leave some room for imagination when it comes to adding details. I fussy cut the finished images using my sharp scissors.
For my card base, I used White Satin Pearl embossing powder to emboss the new Calligraphy Bold Prints on a full size A2 panel of Nautical cardstock. I trimmed down a thick strip of more Nautical cardstock, adding a thinner strip of silver glitter cardstock on either side, then adhering it to the embossed card base. I added the greeting on a strip of cardstock using some foam adhesive, then arranged my flowers above the sentiment strip like they were exploding from the top of the sentiment strip. I love how the colorful gouache painting pops so beautifully from the dark blue cardstock. This is an experiment that I definitely will try again!
My tag features some of the leftover gouache flowers and another embossed background from the Calligraphy stamp, this time backing a Looking Glass Fine Art Frame, die cut from more navy blue cardstock. I arranged the flowers and foliage, as well as a sentiment, then punched a hole in the top and threaded a ribbon through to create a tag. Simple, and would look so lovely adorning a plain gift bag!
Well, that’s all for my projects today. I so enjoyed stepping out of my comfort zone creating these projects-I can’t wait to try more gouache/liquid watercolor experiments! Solid silhouette stamps are just the foundation for some really fun techniques!
To celebrate this new catalog release, Hero Arts is giving away a super fun prize pack. You can check out the Hero Arts Blog for all of the details on the items included in the prize pack from the new release. Simply leave comments along the hop to be entered to win. The more comments you leave, the more chances you have to win!
Your next stop is Ilina Crouse. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!
