Together With you by Tracey Campbell

Greetings and salutations Arty Bees, it is my turn on the blog today and I wanted to try my hand at the monthly Mood Board. I thought that it would be a good challenge as it is certainly not my unusual colour combination that I would put together.

So this is what the May Mood Board looks like; 

The first thing I did was riffle through my Colour Blast by Bee Arty papers to see what I had that would suit. I found some left over pieces of Hope from the Grateful Hearts Collection, Luca from the Love and Grace Collection, Paradise from Life's A Beach and Ideas from the Arty Farty Collection that I thought fitted the colour palette of the Mood Board. Next was looking at the mixed media and choosing Colour Sprays in Sunshine, Tangerine Dream, Punch, Bubblegum and Lagoon. Colour Shimmer Dust in Midnight. Colour Paste in Punch (I didn't end up using the Colour Paste). Citrus in the Artist Inks.

As I only had a few pieces to work with I decided to create my own background to match, so I had a play with the mixed media to see if I could recreate the beach. I started by using Heavy White Gesso to coat a piece of 12x12 cardstock. I knew I would probably layer up a few different mixed media elements so I wanted a good base to work on. Once the Heavy White Gesso was dry I sprinkling some of the Midnight Shimmer Dust across the top of the page. 

Usually I activate the Shimmer Dust with water but as I wanted the dark blue (Peacock) that fades into a lighter shade of the blue (Peacock) I decided to activate it with Lagoon Colour Spray. I actually did this while I had the cardstock on an angle so that the liquid would blend and run down the page.  

Here is how the Midnight Shimmer Dust and the Lagoon Colour Spray turned out. Put aside to dry.

Now for the Blush and Peach Nectar, I didn't quiet have the right colours so I decided to have a bit of a play to mix my own. In a little mister bottle I mixed some Heavy White Gesso with a bit of water to thin it down and then added tiny amounts of Tangerine Dream and Punch Colour Spray together to create a light Blush colour. In another mister bottle I put in a touch of Bubblegum Colour Spray, a drop of Citrus Colour Artist Ink with the watered down Gesso for a Peach Nectar colour. It did take awhile to get the colours right, I just kept adding a tiny amount of colour at a time and spraying onto a scrap of cardstock until I got it right.

I then sprayed the Blush and Peach Nectar colours onto the cardstock with the Peacock blues on it. If I did this again I would do the Blush and Peach Nectar colours first then the Peacock as it kept reactivating when I sprayed it. But I am happy with how it turned out. 

While the background was drying I used the Desire Metal Die to cut out two images from Hope (Grateful Hearts Collection) and six images of vines from the Metal Die set String Leaves using the blue woodgrain pattern from Paradise (Life's A Beach Collection).

I cut the patterned papers into various sized rectangles and layered them to create a large mat for my photo. 

Once happy with the layering I adhered it to the background and added the die cut images around the photo, see the photo below for the positioning. 

Using the Metal Dies 365 Alphas I cut out the main word for my title from some yellow patterned paper. Which I glued on the left hand side of my layout, I did  add a few other letters from some foam Thickers.

I finished off the layout with some peach and peacock paper flowers then doodling and splattering with a white paint pen.

Here is the final layout, it is a bit different than my normal work, but I love how it has turned out and think that it is a good representation of the May Mood Board. 

Thanks for popping in and I hope that I have inspired you to try your hand at the Mood Board. Let me know if you give it a go, I would love to see what you come up with.

Hugs

Tracey