Shine - By Elisa Ablett

Hi Crafters,

Elisa here from the design team for Colour Blast Australia with a mixed media layout I created featuring Midnight Colour Shimmer Dust, Leather Colour Shimmer Spray and Apple of my Eye Colour Paste to name a few!

I wanted to share this tutorial on my personal blog as well to show you a few more mixed media background techniques.

All the Colour Blast products can be found here in the Colour Blast Shop.

I wanted to share with you an interesting technique i thought of using the Shimmer Dust to create a grungy linear background.

To start the layout, I matched the photo (which was an unusual colour) with the different shades of Colour Blast, I ended up adding Leather and Apple of my Eye to the layout as well to achieve the closest match to the photo.

Next step grab a black waterproof pen and a ruler and draw lines as shown below across your page.

Add water to your Midnight Colour Shimmer Dust in an Artist's palette and grab a paintbrush with a nice fine tip. Spray water using a water spray bottle onto your lines and then using a ruler and a nice wet paintbrush (with your activated dust) draw over the top of the lines letting the colour bleed with the water on the page. Wipe the ruler after each pass over the page.

Now while your background dries lets move onto your feathers, spray each feather with a light coat of a combination of Colour Shimmer Sprays and then dry thoroughly. Once the feathers are dry using a sepia toned ink pad and a stamp stamp over the bottom of your feathers like the below photo.

Once the stamping has dried, using a paint brush, screw the lid off your Roadbase Colour Spray and paint the top of your feather and the very bottom tips.

 Next step! while the feathers are drying you can go back to your background and add Colour Shimmer Sprays in Leather, Steel and Apple of My Eye. Also add splatters of each colour in the centre of your layout just above the top and bottom line. Once dry, using some word and texture stamps stamp in both black and sepia colours onto your background.

I also added some circle stamps in black ink and then using a white gel pen, trace around the circles in various places around your layout. 

Once dry, using a palette knife scrap Leather and Apple of My Eye Colour Paste across your chosen stencil on either side of where your photo will sit.

Time to assemble your layout once the Paste has dried. Add some netting under your photo and using 3D mounting tape mount your photo into the middle of your layout. Add your title to the photo and stick it all down.

Time for some close ups of the feathers, stone and shells. Wrap natural twine around the base of feathers and attach twine to your page crossing it over in the middle. Tie your feathers to the stone (which i found on a beach, it had a handy hole already in it) adding your charm. Then glue your shells onto your page at the end.

And here is your finished layout! 

That's it from me today, hope you have enjoyed the tutorial, make sure you leave some love in the comments below!!

Elisa xx