This month Deco Art challenged me to create a mixed media journal using a few of their mixed media products like fluid acrylics, misters, modeling paste, crackle paste, etc… to create a journal. I have to admit that I am unfamiliar in both of these places and although I craft and make things on a daily basis, paper crafting and mixed media are two things that just aren’t my forte. But it’s always good to venture outside of your comfort zone, and so I dived in not really knowing where I was going, and the outcome is even better than I could have hoped for!
In my mind mixed media is the combination of decoupage, stenciling, painting, texturizing, and layering of tons of different elements to create one piece of art. Since the over the top maximalism that accompanies traditional mixed media isn’t my thing, I decided to take a more minimalist approach. The resulting 3D textured plant journal was not only simple to make with a few key DecoArt products, but I may actually start writing things down now!
- Blank Journals (or any you have laying around that need a facelift)
- Plant leaf stencils
- Deco Art Media modeling paste in white
- Deco Art Media Fluid Acrylics
- Paint brush
- Off set spatula or palate knife
I ended up using my misters shown here to color my modeling paste, but you can also use the fluid acrylics, so I eliminated the misters from the product supply list to reduce the amount of products you need.
To begin I mixed the titanium white fluid acrylic with a bit of primary magenta and painted one of my journals light pink. For the mint one I used the white again along with the green-blue color of fluid acrylics.
Once the acrylic was dry, I mixed my modeling paste with a bit of blue and yellow fluid acrylics to create a pretty leaf green using my spatula.
Then, I laid down my stencil and used the spatula to spread the modeling paste over the stencil. Once covered, I lifted up the stencil to reveal my raised textured leaf.
Let the paste dry for an hour and then came back and mixed a different color of green and added another leaf. Then repeated this process until the journal had several different shaped and different sized leaves on it.
You can sort of see the texture and raised look of the leaves above. Once all the leaves were added and dry, I used a few gold stickers to add plant lady to the front of the journal. I feel if you were into more of a rough look, you could totally use decoupage cutout letters here instead, but I liked the clean look of the stickers.
I love the raised texture of the leaves and the stickers and can’t wait to use this journal to keep track of all my craft ideas. I usually keep all my craft ideas in a note on my phone, but after a recent unexpected memory wipe and loss of all my ideas, I feel good old paper and pencil are likely the best way to keep my ideas so I don’t loose then again!
Have you all ever played with mixed media supplies? Let me see your creations by tagging #mykailochic on Insta. Can’t wait to see what you have created! xoxo. Kara
