Shine your Light with ESA {by Nikki Acton}

If, like me, you loving using paint to create backgrounds (or you have loads waiting to be used), collaged journal pages (or cards) are a great way to utilise them. Let's take a closer look at how painterly papers work well with Seth Apter stamps to make some collaged cards.

I started by creating some simple backgrounds with Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics. I hadn't quite decided where this was going but wanted some complementary papers so reached for my favourite blues and greens.

Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics colours used from left to right (above) are Pine Grove (FF143), Inky Pool (FF46) and Glass Blue (FF102), Azure (FF187) and Snowflake (FF15).

I added water to my paper before adding some paint and either moving it around a little or adding more water and letting the paint move around. 

I also created two contrasting papers. The first uses the new Printed Tissue - Postcards. I adhered some tissue to some white card before adding a wash of Fresco Chalk Acrylic - Chalk (FF83). The second is card painted with Fresco Chalk Acrylic - Little Black Dress (FF19) before stamping with Chalk. I used one of the stamps from Seth Apter set 37 (ESA37). 

Once all my backgrounds were fully dry I started tearing them up a little to lose the straight edges.

 

The paint backgrounds use the wet on wet technique where wet paint is added to a surface that is already wet, allowing the paint to move around or colours to blend. For my green one I spritzed the surface with water. I placed a small amount of paint on my craft mat with a little more water and then added to the wet surface randomly. Where there is too much paint an extra spritz of water helps to move the paint around.

I like to leave them to dry naturally overnight rather than use a heat gun as it allows the paint to do its own thing before drying.

The blue one below uses two colours - the same process was used using the blue paint and water - but then some white was dropped into some wet areas and further spritzing used to help blend if required.

I built up my collage background using elements from each of the backgrounds. I also stamped further details from Seth Apter sets ESA37 and ESA41.

For stamping in white I used Fresco Finish Acrylic in Chalk. The black stamping uses archival ink. You may also spot some paint splatters - again using the Chalk paint.

Initially I stamped other elements onto the painted backgrounds and also onto Fresco Acrylic - Chalk painted card. I fussy cut these before working on my final layout.

I layered the butterfly for a bit of dimension - adding parts of the off white image onto the green one.

Combining different elements into groups helped with my composition, for example the word 'Today' with the swirly circles and vertical lines.

I also balanced my colours, making sure each colour was replicated somewhere else.

I have played around with both vertical and horizontal lines to help my composition. Do you think it works? The idea is to guide the eye's movement down and across the page to the focal point(s).

Instagram: @a2a.craft

Pinterest: nikacton

YouTube: @nikkiacton797