Mixed Media! What's All the Fuss About!

Hello There!

Where does the time go, I make a promise every month that I will do at least a couple of blog posts a month and then when I look at the calendar again a whole month has gone by!!! First world problems I know!  Anyway today I want to talk about the phenomenon that is "mixed media" and how it seems to have taken the papercrafting industry by storm over the past couple of years.

Firstly let me just say that I don't identify as a mixed media artist nor will I ever be! Mixed media is defined broadly as the use of various materials to create visual art as opposed to the use of one medium like only using oil paints for painting or stone for sculpture.  Keeping this in mind and applying this to a simple handmade card if you use distress ink and sprays effectively you have created a mixed media card!

At the moment in every facet of the papercrafting world, mixed media are buzz words, everyone who is anyone is doing mixed media and have been for the last few years.  But let's really sit back and think about what's new in the industry?  Looking at the recent pics and video's from CHA except for a few items there is not really much that is new more like new take on old products.  So is it really fair of us to keep pushing the teachers in this industry to come up with new stuff all the time? Yeah probably not.  

So I just ask you to give teachers that don't do mixed media a chance - don't write them off entirely as you never know what you can learn from someone.

When I write these posts I do like to include a picture related to the topic I am harping on about so I have including a little mixed media canvas I did for Imaginarium Designs last year.  Mixed media only because I used Colour Blast Shimmer Cubes and Mica Powders on the one project.

 Keep Creating

Wendy

Embellishments!

Hi Everyone

And before I forget Merry Christmas and hope you will all eventually get some time to sit down and relax and maybe after all the relatives are gone you might get one or two days off to actually get some crafting done.

So the topic of embellishments has been playing on my mind for a while - probably for about six months as it was around this time I started seeing and hearing a lot about flowers in relation to scrapbooking, cardmaking, off-the-page and mixed media!  Now if you are a huge fan of what I commonly refer to as "flower vomit" you need to stop reading now as you are probably not going to like what I have to say.  

It seems there has been a huge shift to using flowers as the main embellishment on pages or cards to the extent that I saw not to long ago a male birthday card with a fish and then a big bunch of flowers down the side!!! This goes back to an earlier blog post I did about creating with a theme in mind and then creating with balance, this card had an identity crises not knowing if it was going fishing or coffee with the girls!! Now I am not saying you can't use flowers on male projects BUT I have only ever seen a few where this works.  So what to take from this - it seems like when we really don't know what to fill the blank space up with a lot of ladies are just reaching for flowers instead of deciding "what is my theme", what do I have in my stash that I can use to make an embellishment that is related to my theme.  I have a few ladies who come to my classes who don't like a lot of flowers so this forces me to think outside of the box when it comes to embellishments.  If flowers are your signature style that is great, continue to spread the love of flowers but if your cards, pages and other projects are all starting to look the same and you are bored then try something else.  I have listed some ideas below to get you thinking about what you can use instead of flowers all the time:-

• Metal Embellishments (again we don't want to see "metal vomit" unless that's your thing).
• Make your own tassels
• Appropriate ribbon, string, hemp, burlap
• Buttons
• Enamel dots 
• Try using just a 3 flowers instead of 33
• Look at your paper stack and make embellishments from it
• Beads, rocks & stones or elements from nature
• Eyelets - in my opinion perfect for male cards / projects and by far not given enough exposure
• Die cuts
• Chipboard
• Stickers
• Brads
• Feathers
• Pegs 
• Anything made from wood
• Stamped Sentiments
• Doilies
• Make your own banners and flags from toothpicks and paper
• Mini Stapler
• Wool
• Washi Tape
• Old Watch Parts & old jewellery
• Scrabble Pieces
• Paper clips
• Straws
• Nails, screws and stuff hubby might have in the garage
• Tickets and stubs
• Bling (again where appropriate)
• Make your own mini fans and envelopes (tutorials on you tube everywhere).
• Jewellery wire or copper wire.

I could just keep typing but you get the picture, I know that a beautiful card or layout will mostly likely have a few of these embellishments for "balance" and to create "layers" and "texture" and that is what you should be looking for.

Couple of pictures of some of my earlier cards where I have made a retirement card for a man and and cute card using "Gorjuss" paper tole with just some pegs and a "molded" hard plastic flower.

So please stop going into the embellishment garden and picking all the flowers just pick enough for what you need to create something truly memorable. 

Have an awesome Christmas look forward to seeing you next year at one of my classes.

Keep Creating!

Wendy