XOx 3 - Finnabair Team

In the beginning of the week first post in a series of new post was published in Finnabair's blog. The series is called Spread Your Wings Academy and the goal is to inspire and most of all to encourage every one to try their wings. The whole team is very keen on mixed media styled creations and we are trying to demystify mixed media and spark ideas and urge to try things yourselves. The first post in the series is filled with ideas to get started and also tips to create backgrounds. I hope you'll take a leap of faith and try out different things! Please, come and join! 

My biggest revelation in scrapbooking was when I realized one thing – it’s only paper. If I happen to ruin a 12x12" sheet while playing, so what? The memory I want to preserve is in my head, it doesn’t get thrown away. As I use mixed media in my background the photo is in that phase still safe and sound a bit further away so it doesn’t get tossed away either. So should the worst happen, the only thing that gets ruined is one paper. And the time spent when “ruining” it was well spent in play and experiment.

It was a really mind-blowing, life-changing discovery and has helped me ever since. Don’t hold back – play, try, experiment and occasionally fail as well, it’s all part of the process!

Another word of advice, too. When you add something to your piece and think that now you've ruined it, give it another change. Don’t give up on it right away but add another layer and see what happens. There’s numerous times I’ve thought that a project is beyond any repair or will never be anything but I've been keeping pushing and working on it and usually that piece ends up being a personal favorite. So be a bit thick headed and see where it takes you.

One advice still - don't be afraid to cover something up. When doing a page there's bound to be something that gets covered by the layers coming above. Keep your mind set to the over all composition and don't be scared to hide things underneath the layers.

In the post I also shared a really simple and easy background technique. It lets you to have your own hand print in the paper but doesn't need that many materials and it's only three steps long. I hope that if you haven't tried mixed media style crafts before, this tutorial might get you started. Like I said, just three steps and one of a kind background is done! Above you can see the materials needed - some mists, ink pad and stamps, a stencil and a pencil. If you are on a budget or just starting, you can substitute mists with watercolors and make a stencil of your own out of cardboard or paper or leave it out all whole together.

Underneath are the steps for the background. I hope you found this post interesting! Have a great Sunday and start to the new week!

1) First choose your color scheme and mist a few colors to your background paper. Let air-dry or use a heat tool to dry.

2) Next take a stencil and a pencil. Trace the pattern to your page a few times and mix some doodled circles in as well. You can also add bigger hand drawn pieces if you want. 

3) Finnish your background with stamping. Use one or a few stamps and mix different patterns.

Materials: Prima Marketing, Tattered Angels, Ranger, A Flair for Buttons, Design Memory Craft