Mixed Media Christmas Gift

Hello everyone!

Today I am sharing with you a Mixed Media project in a style I have never done before.

I have a 13 year old grandson that I needed to make a gift for. His sisters are receiving a Mixed Media project and it seemed logical to do the same for him. My only dilemma is that I have only used  a feminine style on all of my mixed media in the past. So how could I make something for a teenage boy? To top it off his favourite colour is orange; bright orange!

The next thought was how to create a religious theme using bright colours in a masculine way? I shook my self doubt aside and just dug in. So here it is. Oh, I should mention that the Bazzill cardstock is not a black or charcoal but is Bitter Chocolate, a nice deep brown.

Not only have I never made a teen, masculine, or worked with bright colours before, but this was my first time using plain Bazzill cardstock rather than a pattern printed paper, and my first time using heat embossed stamping, and using die cut lettering on a mixed media layout.

You can see in the upper left corner the copper heat embossing, which is found here and there throughout the layout, The double layered die cut lettering was attached after the texture stencilling and then painted over with white gesso before spritizing with colour. I love how the bright orange and bright blue mixed together on the letters 'a' & 'y'.

The chipboard laser cut piece was covered with NUVO Mousse Copper and then with a mixture of Aquamarine & a tiny bit of Seaspray Green to give patina to the copper.

To break up the solid Bazzill Bitter Chocolate background, I tore into the paper and added pieces of striped paper that matched nicely. I did not originally want to spray colour onto the strip paper, I just forgot to cover it. But in the end it really did not matter that much.

I was tickled to find this punch out compass to use. And I just noticed that a piece of foam tape backing got caught in the coconut fibres! Well it will not be there when I gift this.

Here is the other paper tear. Have you been noticing some twigs here and there? Well, I went to go collect some, but could not find any small enough or dry enough to use. So I went to buy one of those grape vine wreaths (from the dollar store) and cut it up to use.

The same is true for the unusual flowers and leaves used for this project; from the dollar store that is.

I really like this photo I found that goes so nicely with the colouring of the quote. Both of these I printed onto photo paper and then painted over with Clear Gesso once they were completely dry. It gave the images a nice matte look with some slight texture.

Now, I am hoping that my 13 year old grandson will like it.

Thank you for stoping by to share in my many firsts for a mixed media layout. If I have inspired you, then I am glad.

Happy creating!