Get Your Splatter On

I do love to get messy with my pages. Having been a digital scrapper at one point, the best thing for me about scrapping is the ability to play with so many different mediums and really have fun creating. Making splatters is a lot of fun for me and I like to add them in LOs to show movement, bring in some bold colors, add depth, or just because I want to have fun getting messy at the time. It really is such a release for me and I hope that you take the plunge and have some fun with paint as well. It really isn't that overwhelming and remember you are usually your own worst critic so shut that nagging voice up with some loud music.

My supply list is pretty short, you honestly don't need a whole lot to get started with different mediums and most of this can be found in your local craft shop with the use of coupons!

 

I chose my background paper that I wanted to work with. If you just want to try things out and have some fun with paint first before committing to any of your pretty paper stash I would suggest you grab a water color pad. I have a large one which I sometimes cut down and use for backgrounds on my LOs. I also have a flat brush there to spread my gesso on my paper. If you aren't committing to your pretty paper and are using a prepped pad you want need either of those items.  I bought some cheap water colors at Michaels and used a coupon you don't have to get expensive. 

For prepping my paper I put on some gesso, I do like Martha Stewart's brand for this type of messy play because it is thin and spreads a whole lot easier then some of the thicker gesso which I use for stencils. I put a bit too much on there, but getting messy is forgiving. When I had the area covered that I wanted I simply grabbed a paper towel and wiped some off.

 

I mixed my paint choices, blue + white and red + white, to match the colors in  Cocoa Vanillas Love Always collection. Since I wanted to get a bit brighter then the collections muted tones I mixed until I got it the way I wanted. I then added water to my mix because I want this to flow when I blow it with my straw. 

 

I started with the blue color and added a generous helping of my paint mix. I get my straw and start blowing the paint into the direction that I want. I did record a bit of my blowing through a straw :) but I also add water when I want to in order to get the paint flowing as you see. 

 You can change the flow of the splatter with the straw and/or turning the paper. Add water as you go if needed and you can always add more paint as you go as well. This takes a bit of practice to get it as you like it. But always remember imperfection is the best perfection when it comes to mixed media.

If you are as impatient as I am to wait for paint to dry you can use a heating tool if you have one or a small hairdryer that doesn't blow a lot of air. If you don't have either, depending on what you are doing wait for your paint to dry so its good to think of this if you need to prep your background then want to do something else for a bit because drying time varies. 

This is when I had three colors, I added another pink after this. I realized that it was a bit more intense as far as color went then I intended to go. So I continued after this to add some white ink with a stencil to kind of soften the blow. After adding tissue, and paper, and layers and so many bits and bobs from the Love Always collection I finished with the final LO.

 So as you see starting with the splatters it gave some pop to the LO and really brought focus to the picture. Its a whole lot of fun to get messy and I encourage you to give it a try. Paper Issues has a mix it up Monday challenge every month where you can enjoy a bit more creative play with your LOs. This month is an anything goes so I would really love to see some of you get your splatter on your pages for the Challenger.