Let's get messy!

my absolute favorite thing to use on a layout or project is paint! ah, paint is lovely and versatile and MESSY!! oh, i see some of you cringing already! but i challenge you to try paint if you never have. it's unpredictable and can get all over the place, but it's a lot of fun.

here are a few different ways i like to use paint.

1- painting directly on the paper
my style is sorta go with with the flow. sometimes i plop some paint on my foam brush and have at it. sometimes i will pre-plan a page and decide where i want the paint to go. but most of the time, i will just guesstimate where the picture will be placed and then just go a bit crazy with the paint. in the page i did using Noel Mignon's Gingersnap kit, i used a heck of a lot of paint under all those layers! but then i decided to use a lot of things and most of it got covered up. but there's still some pink paint peeking out from behind the photo's. i also painted a red border, which leads me to the next technique


2- painting a border
i love to paint borders around the whole layout, but i also love giving a frame to pictures with paint. in this mini book i started, i used bright green paint over a black and white photo to make it pop! it really draws your eyes to the photo.


3- use unintentional items with paint
my new favorite technique is using bubble wrap as a stamp! if you haven't tried this yet, you have to! it's so much fun, and the effect is so cool. it never comes out the same way twice, and thats the beauty of paint!


(i love to use more than one color. my foam brushes get A LOT of use and our bathroom sink looks like a rainbow attacked it most of the time! all in the name of art though right??)

4- fingerpaint!
get messy! be a kid again! dont be afraid to stick your whole hand in and smear it all over the place! i love fingerpainting/hand painting for art journals. the freedom to smoosh paint all over the place is so liberating! in my "book of me" i did a lot of pages using paint. this is one where i used my fingers with a bunch of different pinks!


5- use paint to make something POP
if you use patterned paper as your background, sometimes the title can get a little lost. i like to just dash a little bit of paint that contrasts with my title color in the area i want to put my title, and voila! you have a title that pops!


6- use different things to apply paint
use the edge of a playing card to give it sharp lines
use an empty toilet paper roll to make circles
use cardboard as a stamp!
use a leaf
use newspaper
use anything! sky's the limit

and if using paint on a layout is too intimidating, try something smaller! i am currently decorating a card a day (a playing card). it gives me the opportunity to try out new techniques every single day.

it's small and easy and doesn't have to go in an album to be shared, so if you dont like it, don't show anyone! try your techniques out on a smaller scale and you will be surprised at how exciting it is! and once you've mastered them, you will be much more confident to try them out on a bigger scale. :)