December Daily© Mixed Media Layout
As I am diving into this December Daily© project, I promised myself that I would be authentic and truthful in my documenting. And, let’s be honest, not every day in December is going to be perfect and magical. The holidays are full of stress with obligations to your family, friends, and church. On top of normal workloads, we add present buying, Christmas cards, extra cooking and cleaning, and just a whole lot of emotions that come around this time of year. For me, it didn’t take long for the stress to catch up to me…December 3rd to be exact!
The other lesson that I am discovering about myself is that to make December Daily© work for me, I need to do things that I like. And that means mixed media! I thought using some crazy mixed media would be the perfect way to tell the story of my first holiday breakdown.
To prep my watercolor paper, I sprayed a quick mist of water before using the Distress Oxide Spray (peeled paint) to lay down the first layer of color. While the spray was still wet, I cam back over the top with several different shades of green watercolors. Because all of the media was still wet, the colors were able to blend and meld really nicely on top of the watercolor paper. When you are working with mixed media, it is really important to plan whether you want different mediums to mix/blend or whether you intend to layer them. If you are blending, you want to use the wet on wet technique. If you are layering, you want to dry completely between each layer.
After my green background was in place, I added a bit of texture through a plaid stencil from Tim Holtz. I used silver heavy body acrylic paint from Target and my finger for application. This did not result in a super crisp image, but it did leave a very cool, subtle texture in the background that I really liked! After drying the paint completely, I pulled out my favorite metallic watercolor set and promptly added gold paint splatters across the whole background. At this point, my mixed media piece was looking a bit crazy, but it was okay, because I knew that the majority of it would end up covered up by a train cut file. The last layer I added was another stenciled layer. This time I used Distress Oxide ink (Fired Brick) through a number stencil from Illustrated Faith. I added this in three places across the piece, bringing in a bit of that holiday feel with the red and green combo!
After I was satisfied with my background, I trimmed the page to 6″ x 8″ size so that it would fit in my December Daily album. I adhered the train cut file to the page and added the title “Hot Mess Express” to the page using a mixture of alpha stickers from my stash. The back of the page was super simple. I just matted and adhered the photo of my choice, typed up the story of my hot mess day, and added the additional title. Done!
I loved getting the chance to incorporate mixed media into my album. For me, it really captured the feeling of the day, and mixed media is always a great creative outlet for me. Playing with messy art supplies uplifts my spirits! All the supplies I used are linked below and be sure to check out the video above!
Keep it creative,
The Scrappy Wife
Supplies Used: (Some of these are affiliate links…thank you for supporting this channel!)
