Colour Blast by Bee Arty: You are Capable of Amazing Things by Elisa Ablett

Hi Crafters,

My turn up on the blog today with a bright and vibrant yet grungy boy mixed media layout.

Sometimes when you pick up a photo and you realllly want to scrap it but the colours seem to bright and all over the place and perhaps you have a bold pattern or some distraction in the photo. I used to stress about it, perhaps i'd even print it in black and white to help myself out BUT I made the decision that with mixed media you can use those bright colours and bold patterns in your photo to create the perfect background to match....so that's how I'm rolling these days.

With the photo that I used you can see the bold green and yellow graffiti in the background plus not to mention his bright Carribean blue shirt so those are the colours i decided to concentrate on..plus a bit of black to grunge it up in honour of the graffiti feel to the layout.

Here is the finished layout.

Here are some close ups so you can see the details a bit better.

Let's get started on the tutorial!

Step 1 - Draw a rectangular frame in the centre of your page with a black waterproof marker, then go over the top of the black frame with a masking fluid pen or fine applicator. Masking fluid is a fantastic tool to add to your Mixed Media creations, you can block colours with it very easily..

Step 2 - Add a small amount of Colour Shimmer Dust in Paris and Lush to a paint palette tray and then add a small amount of water. Using a spray bottle of water and a paint brush add colour to your blocked area. I sprayed the area first with water and then added splashes of colour here and there, I also added after it had dried, a bit of Sunshine Colour Shimmer Spray by dipping a clean paint brush into the spray bottle and dripping it onto the coloured area.

Step 3 - after the coloured area has dried completely, you can remove the masking fluid barrier simply by rubbing it with your finger and lifting it up and off. I then used a lovely circle stencil and traced the lines and the circle over the top of the coloured area.

Step 4 - Add some Dusty Charcoal Colour Paste with a palette knife and stencil in places over your layout.

Step 5 - Grab your selected Colour Sprays and Colour Shimmer Sprays and spray your selected embellishments, I have used an old set of Resist chipboard stars that come packaged plain and then you colour them yourself...

Step 6 - Add some more Colour Blast Paste in Sunshine

Step 7 - Add some grungy stamping with a black versafine ink pad after the Sunshine Paste has completely dried. Then add another laying of stenciling using Colour Paste in Apple of My Eye.

Dry thoroughly and then add your last touches to the layout.

A few extra details at the end to put your layout together:

1. spray water at the top edge and add a few drops of Carribean Colour Spray and spray water over the top of the colour and let drip down into the middle of your page, only a small amount, once dry do the same to the bottom edge.