Hello, Rebecca with you today and I’m really excited to be sharing my layout for Mixed Media Monday. I’m a massive lover of mixed media, and I’m not afraid to get messy so this assignment was perfect for me! I’m working with the August 2021 Kits, and this layout will feature products from the August 2021 Main Kit, August 2021 Embellishment Kit and the August 2021 Color Kit. My layout also features one of the August Subscriber Exclusive CutFiles.

 

 

 

 

Within the Color Kit this month we receive three ink pads by Catherine Pooler Designs and a 6×6 stencil by Simple Stories.

 

 

I begun by prepping my cutfile and background cardstock with clear gesso as I knew I’d be applying plenty of water along with the colour. I worked on my cutfile first, using the ink pads as watercolour paints. I stamped the colour onto some plastic and added a small amount of water. I then painted it directly onto my cutfile. My intention was to paint the sun in an ombre effect so I begun painting the centre yellow with the ‘Limoncello’ ink. I then mixed the ‘Limoncello’ with a little of the ‘Be Mine’ ink to create orange ink and painted this onto the centre part of the sun rays. I finished the very ends with the ‘Be Mine’ ink. I added some water to help the colours blend.

 

 

Next, I painted the outer part of the letters with the ‘Be Mine’ ink and then used a blending brush to add the same colour to the inner part of the letters. Because I’d watered the inks down, they dried a little lighter than I wanted, so I went over the cutfile using the same colours and a bleding brush to help intensify the colours. I then backed the centre part of the cutfile with my photo. I absolutely love how vibrant the ink pads are in the August 2021 Color Kit – they are really moist and a little goes a long way!

 

 

 

I then moved on to my background. I used the packaging technique to add the ‘Something Borrowed’ ink to the background, keeping to the centre area. I applied plenty of water and tilted my page in all directions to help the ink run. I also mixed in a little of the ‘Limoncello’ Ink to add some greener tones to create some depth and interest to the background. Once this had dried, I added some white splatters by watering down white gesso and using a paintbrush to ‘flick’ the paint on top of the colour. I then finished my background by applying some of the ‘Something Borrowed’ ink through the Simple Stories stencil we receive in the August 2021 Color Kit.

 

 

I added some foam behind my photo and stuck that in the centre of my layout. I glued the ‘H’ and ‘T’ down flat to background, and raised the centre parts of the letters up on foam. I didn’t stick the sun rays down at all – I left them loose to add some dimension to the layout.

 

 

I then moved on to the fun task of embellishing. I didn’t want to go too mad with the embellishments as I didn’t want to cover too much of my beautiful mixed media. I selected some ephemera pieces from the Simple Stories ‘Sunkissed’ pack and a puffy sticker from Amy Tangerine’s ‘Brave and Bold’ collection – both of which we get in the Main Kit, along with some chipboard stickers (Simple Stories Sunkissed), some cardstock stickers from Vicki Boutin’s ‘Color Study’ collection – both from the Embellishment Kit.

 

 

I also fussy-cut some flowers from the Vicki Boutin patterned paper from the Main Kit. I selected colours to match my layout and layered them for dimension. I used all these elements to create two clusters around my cutfile.

 

 

Because I’d placed a sun at the top of my layout, I felt like I needed some clouds. There are a few clouds in the Simple Stories Ephemera pack… but… I’ve used those on another layout! So I got creative and made some clouds from white cardstock. I simply hand drew them, cut them out and distressed the edges and added a tiny bit of blue ink to help make them more realistic.

 

 

I finished my layout off with some white splatters – again, using watered-down white gesso.

 

 

I hope you’ve enjoyed this layout and it’s provided you with some inspiration for using your August 2021 Hip Kits! I absolutely love how this layout turned out – the colours are so vibrant and the whole page screams ‘Summer’ to me. Don’t forget Hip Kit subscribers get discounted monthly kits, access to exclusive cutfiles and free shipping on add-on kits. Visit the Hip Kit Website to subscribe now!

If you’d like to watch this layout come together, I have a process video up on my personal YouTube channel, which you can find here:

 

 

Thanks very much for reading!

Rebecca xx