Introduction to Mixed Media - Creating Mixed Media Postcards

1. Intro: Hello and welcome Teoh Virtual classroom. My name is Nina. I, um, an artist. I teach online classes on this platform and also run workshops and classes locally. And in this class, I'm going to teach you how Teoh makes me Dio. You don't need any drawing scales in this class. And even if you think that you're not creative, I can promise you that by the end of the class, you will have created for beautiful mixed postcards. It is a perfect clasping beginner to a mixed media because I'm going to show you step by step. How you create a lot of different layers off this mixed media project was, if you already worked with mixed media birds are just looking for a new project or for some inspiration, then the scars is definitely also a good fit for you. By the end of the class, you will have created for individual postcards which can then send to friends or family all you keep them together and set and give away our present. Sure, we're going to have a lot of fun of this class on. I hope you'll join us 2. Tools & Materials: in this video, I'm going to talk you through the tools on materials we're going to need for this class. First of all, let's talk about the paper. I usually use ordinary white carts Stop for my mixed media postcard projects, but you could also use a water color paper on one shed is going to give you four individual postcards in the end. For this class, I have bean working raise ordinary card stock and also with watercolor paper. I have to say I personally still prefer to use card stock. I don't find that the watercolor paper is better to use, but few free to go for either. Whenever I fear that my card stock is too warped due to having used a lot water based products like pains on PV a glue, I just stick it under some heavy books that usually helps. I also tend to use old War calendars as long as the paper isn't glossy. Andi, it's thick enough, and I would wanted to be roughly as thick as ordinary card stock you can buy. You might also want to think about using a plastic sheet or some old newspaper to cover your workspace. a variety of painting could use for mixed media projects. I usually just go for pains I've got at home, for example, poster pains or just emulsion pain so you can get those little sample pots of for war paint at the DEA y stores. And if you've got any acrylic panes, they're really good to use because they dry really quickly. You could check if your local craft store stocks a whole box of various colors of acrylic paints, so you wouldn't have to buy the bigger bottles on. Then I tend to use a jam jar lid for mixing colors. Then you'll be needing a selection off brushes. You don't have to go for anything special. One thicker brush to paint the background on, then a couple of other brushes. Four stencils on adding details to the cards. You could also use an old toothbrush. If you want Teoh, add some splatter effects to your cards. If you've got any store cards or library cards, hold onto them because they can be used really well for spreading paint on the card stock. I like to use just very ordinary PV a goof for my mixed media projects. I tend to diluted a little bit with water, and I just got a little container. Why? I put some blue in, add a little bit of water on. Mix it up, then you're going Teoh. Need a brush to apply the glue, Teoh the paper and glued onto the page I usually hold on or the catalogues on magazines that come through the mail as I use them a lot in my mixed media projects for the postcards , we are going to use little people on violent people. I mean just models from catalogs. Andi, I find putting the models in a different context can be a lot of fun, and here are some ideas of papers you could use. You will probably have a variety of papers at home. This is an old book with maps in there, but you can go for book pages tissue paper napkins, wrapping paper, parcel paper, notebook, paper sheet music. Then this is a paper from an old sewing pattern. I really like using this paper because you've got the lines on there, but it's filling enough so that you could see details through which are underneath, and you can pick these up really cheaply in charity shops, and the same goes for old books. Onda sheet music. Another fun item to use our old envelopes, especially when you look on the inside of envelopes that tend to have some really nice patterns that you can use in your mixed media picture on. Then I've got a guard, a big box with a worthy off cuts and bits and pieces from other projects, and I just keep everything on. Then I'll just go through my box and see if there's anything I want use in my present project. I like to use China Marker A. My mixed media projects they really cheap and very easy to get hold off. But if you haven't got one, I find that just a black crayon works pretty well for certain details. You can add to your postcards, then also used white acrylic paint for adding detail because it dries really quickly so I could recommend getting some of white acrylic paint. Then, if you've got any different kinds of Stam's here a couple of half myself from raisers on, then you would need a stamp pad. But make sure that if you're using a pigment based Ampad. You can't go over it with any water based materials because it will smudge, so you would have to use it on top off everything else Or you would have to go for archival . Inked is permanent and won't smudge if you went over it with water based products. A few other things you can use to add details are, for example, Buttle talks. This is top off an empty blue stick. Then you could use string on rapid around something. I used an old tape books so you just wrap the string around a box Onda, and then you can cover thes string with paint on. Use it as a stamp on. It gives some really lovely detail on Let's not forget bubble wrap. I think we've all got some bubble wrap at home on by just adding a little bit of pains onto the bubbles off the bubble wrap can at a really nice patterns that you can add to your postcards. And I'm sure that if you walked around your home how to look out for other items that you can use to add some structure to your images, you'll probably find something. I think this This is a scouring pad, an old one that I used a stamp. Then I really like to use acrylic ink, and I just add some ink splatters on top off my images. So that's something else you could do. And, of course, it could use all your favorite pens permanent marker pens, jail pens, just black pens to see what works on the mixed media postcards on Just use the pens you've got at home on. If you have a pencil with an eraser at the back, you could use the razor as a stamp because that will give you like little dots on your cars . And those make really lovely details. If you've got any stencils at home, absolutely used, um, in your mixed meat yard if you don't don't worry about it, but you can pick up stencils or stencil books really cheaply at D I. Y. Stores or craft stores. Even charity shops and ivory often don't go for the whole pattern, but maybe just a line or I said pattern or just in a little detail from the whole stencil on What would I do without washing tape? I don't always use washi tape, but I do find that in some images, I quite like to add a little bit of washing tape as well. If you've got any, feel free to use it. In order to cut the card into four postcards, you'll need a cutting mat on a craft knife class, a metal ruler or a pair of scissors on a pencil. I've created PdF fire for you with some quotes and just sayings you can use on your cards. But I also like to use sentences from books, so sometimes just go through a book or through book page and just pick out a sentence I thought would be fun on a cod so you could do that. Andi, please remember that I've got a pdf file With all of the tools on materials we are going to use in this class, you are going to find both pdf files within the class project, So just scroll down on the page and click on the project, and then the Pdf files will appeal on your right, and then you can download them 3. Painting the Background: right, let's get started. First of all, we're going to use paint to cover our white piece of card stock. I've chosen do colors you could go for. I would say that up to three or four colors, but I find that just starting with two colors is absolutely fine, because you can add more colors later on. I've chosen a rather muted color scheme that absolutely few free Teoh use very bright colors, any colors that you really like. So I'm just using a brush on just stabbing some paint at random spots on my white cardboard on. Then I'm just going to spread the pain out on to the paper kind of in a really random way. But it's nice to see the brushstrokes, because for three, the next colors of the page pains I'm going to use theme the credit card that will give a completely different look to the way the pain is spread out on the paper. You can see me just using a little spoon to at some paint to the empty spaces on the card stock, and then I'm just using the car to spread the pains away over the empty spaces on the card stock, then thinking of four different postcards I want to create from the one big piece of card stock. I'm trying to make sure that I've got both colors of both pains distributed innocent, an equal amount on each quarter off page. So I'm just having a look. And I'm just adding stiff, a little bit of paint here and there on then at the end are just fancied having some splashes of a darker blue on the paper. So I just watered down a blue color on. Then I'm just hitting the brush to create the beautiful splashes. 4. Choosing the Figures: while the paint is drying, you can get started on choosing the people You want to go on the postcards. I usually go through all my magazines, catalogs to find models. I'm trying to find something that either goes with the mood off the postcards that want to create and definitely something that will go with the color scheme I'm aiming for. I've already chosen. If you models, I'm hoping to use for the postcards on. I usually don't fussy carts. The figures just tear around them, But you can definitely use a pair of scissors on fatty. Cut your little people. I'm just holding my thumb on the image to make sure that I don't tear into the person. And then when I've got all my little people ready on the background dry, I next decide on where a one to place the little people I usually have one person per postcard on. Then I just play around on Bond. Try and figure out where I would like to position them on the individual postcards. Here's a little tip. I find it really useful to have a postcard off the right size at hand because it helps you to work out the dimensions off your individual postcards on here. I'm just playing around with the models, trying work out what want to place them on the postcards. I find that models that kind of rhetoric street at you're quite like to place those in the middle of a card. But I usually end up moving along the characters around quite a bit until I'm happy where have placed them before I glue the little people onto the card stock. I like to add another layer off a scrap paper underneath the figures, as you can see in this example, So I just go through my box of bits of scrap paper on Choose you that I think might be suitable on. Then again, I just play around with, um on place them under the little figures on, see what they look like. I don't add lots of paper, but I just want to create a little bit often extra layer underneath and have a few hours of paper under the figures, as in the step afterwards, we're going to add more bits of scrap paper while we're creating the next layer off of this project. And once you're happy where everything is positions. You can just get your PV a glue and a brush on, then are just lived on the figures and the bit of paper on. Add some off the blue underneath, then a glue it on on. Go over the whole area with the brush on you on just grew a lot of the figures onto the page. Here's another tip. You can use the postcard Teoh actually make marks on your bit of card stock to see where your individual cards are going to start and end, because that might help you with visualizing the finished product. 5. Adding Paper: wants. Your little people are glued in position. You can carry on adding bits of paper to your cart stock and create the next layer in our mixed media project. I found these two little yellow flowers in the catalog, and I thought they worked really well with the yellow scarf off the woman on the left hand side in the corner. So I'm definitely going to use those as part of a collage, but I'm going to add more paper first. All the bits of paper I've collected for this page are working with the same color scheme there in blues on beige light brown colors. Andi, I just went through my supply off scrap paper, but you could just use a book pages. I've got a sewing pattern I'm going to use. Then you can go through catalogues and just look for images that have the right colors on. Just used them as patterns, role and use them as images. You can use old maps on a note papers of anything that has a nice pattern or nice color would work really well on. Once you start looking for papers, you'll probably surprised how much you've already got at home on probably consistent papers that you might have put in the recycling like gift wrap. Sold envelopes always check the inside of envelopes because they can have the most amazing patterns, Asai said. Old book pages notebook paper that has gone a bit yellow with time works really well, so there's so much you can use for the's mixed media projects. When you add in bits of paper to this layer of, try not overthink it too much, but just kind of go with it. Just grab a bit of paper that you like unjust. Glue it onto the cart stock. I've bean adding quite a lot. So you might be wondering why I bothered about adding a layer of pain, Whether it's part of the beauty of creating with mixed media, you are layering things one on top, off the other on. You might just see a little bit off the first layer peeking through on you just kind of working with it. You're covering things up, your layering on top on it. It's just a lot of fun working with this medium, right. I'm happy with the results, and now we have to wait for the glue to dry before we can add the next layer 6. Adding more Paint: Now that the glue has dried, I'm going to add more paint. I've got selection off acrylic panes, which I quite like to use because they dry very quickly. But don't worry. If you haven't got any at home, use any pains that you've got at home on, then I've also got summer theory original paint I used for the background on. I'm just going to use a few hints of this color here and there just to blend the last layer on. Also, bring that color to the foreground again. You see, I'm using the store card for this again on. I'm really not using a lot of color is just back, Really a few dabs here. They're off the color to add extra interest, add another layer and then I always like to add a little bit of white pains. You could use either acrylic paint or just any poster paint that would work really well on again. I'm just adding a little bit just for extra interest on then. Lastly, I want to use some blue to just pick up on the blue that is already in the image. I'm trying to go for Blue that has a similar color to the dress off the woman in the top left image on. Then I'm moving on to a different blue because I would like to have a kind of a little bit more muted blue for the other three postcards. I actually found that the blue was a bit too strong for my liking. So what I'm doing here is just adding some white acrylic paint to create a lighter shade of blue that I can use. You have noticed. I've been using my finger to add some of that blue paint. You can try it, or different varieties and versions of adding pain to your picture. I don't particularly like getting any paint on my fingers, but sometimes it just gives difference structure of a different feel to the page if you're using your fingers rather in the brush or the credit card to add the pain to the image on in the end, I just added a few brushstrokes. A swell because of that, said before brushed drugs will add a different kind of pattern to the whole amid image again on then. Lastly, I'm adding more of the beige on, then order off the wide just to end the darker shades of blue with the rest of the picture 7. Stamps & Stencils: Yeah, I'm going to use my handmade Stam, the one I showed you at the beginning when you were talking about the tools and materials. This is really such an easy stump to creating. Gives you absolutely lovely results so I can strongly recommend you shine. Have a go at creating your own stream. Stam. The paint I'm using is just ordinary black poster pains are nothing special, but he could definitely go for something like acrylic paint and that would work really well . Before I use is dumb. I usually have a bit of scrap paper to see if I've got enough paint on my stamp. Or maybe too much. I quite like to have a feel for what it will look like on then are just use it kind of randomly throughout the whole page. However, I'm definitely trying to avoid with faces the next I've got the bubble Up out on this is white acrylic panes, but again, you could just use poster pains of just spread some of the white paint onto the bubble wrap , tried it again on the scrap paper on. Then I'm just going to stamp it similarly to the other stomach just randomly across the page. Next, I'm going to use some stencils. They are those special stencils there, just a few that I've picked up over the years and they're just part of by stash. If you haven't got any Stansell's, please don't worry about it. You could just have a go at creating some more stamps or just leave the image of it is on. Do not add any more to its. I don't always use stencils, but I just wanted to give you an idea off what you could do with those Stansell's here. I'm just trying to create a different shade of blue, or I'm trying to go for a dark grey blues. I'm just mixing together some off the colors I've got out already on. If you haven't used Stansell before, it's important to make sure that the pain isn't too running. You just want to have a little bit on your brush. It's almost like you want the brush to be dry with painted that makes sense on. Then you're just dabbing the brush on top off the stencil, as you can see me doing now, because otherwise you weren't able to get the pattern that the stunt so would create. There we go. We've got this little pattern in the corner on. I'm just thinking where else? I might want to use them off those patterns. So here I'm just using part of the person to earn a little extra detail. Teoh the image at the bottom. Right on their next, I'm going to try and create something like a crown to our lady in the top left corner. So I'm just really positioning it carefully on top of her head to make sure that the pattern that is going Teoh come through actually looks vaguely like a crown. This isn't something that had planned from the start, but very often. Once I start using a stencil on, have a look at my whole image. I just come up with ideas of where I want you certain bits off the patterns from the stencil on. Because I've been using acrylic panes, I made sure that I cleaned off the pain from the stencil immediately on there. Now we're back to the runny blue pain from the beginning. If you remember that, the other one to create a few more splatters on top off our postcards because I really like those. Yeah, I'm just trying out If my pain is runny enough on, then I realized that I actually need Teoh. Add a bit more water. So I find that a spray bottle works really well to make sure that you don't have too much water to it. Then just when I got started with all the splashes, realized that I hadn't covered up the faces off our four little ladies because receive, you don't want to have any splatters on their faces because they're so small. So I would recommend if you were doing anything like that, like splattering paint across your mixed media card on. If you don't want to get any pain and certain parts off your car, just cover them up with little bits of scrap paper. You can also see I've added a few more bits and pieces of different stencils to the whole card on you. Condemn, definitely. You know, go for as little as much of the stencils as you want to. But you could also use stamps for that. If you've got stamps with any patterns on them, right, I'm happy with the result. Andi, Once the paint has dried, we can cut the card stock into our four postcards. Okay? 8. Cutting the Cards: I am now ready. Teoh, cut the card stock into four equally sized postcards. I'm going to use my cutting mat, the craft knife on my Met blood. Yeo cut like hearts, but he couldn't definitely use a your routine or a paper cutter or even a pef scissors as long as you make sure that you divide your card into four parts. If you're going to use a pair of scissors, I would definitely use a pencil and ruler Teoh make guidelines so you know exactly where you need to cut your card. You can do that either on the back, or if you want to be 100% sure that you're cutting the cards exactly where you want to cut them. To make sure that your full cards have all the details in that you want to have in, for example, you wouldn't want to caps off any bits off your little people that you've got in the card. You could draw the line on the front of the cards on then later. If you could still see any pencil lines, you could carefully try and erase those, so that should work as well as I mentioned before, while ever is filming this class. I was experimenting using watercolor paper on ordinary card stock. Just see if there was any difference. So the second card you see is my other cards. Stocks. That's actually the card stock. The one with the blue colors is the watercolor paper on. Also, just to show you what kind of a different color scheme would look like in this one I hade apart from the beige and blues theme, third color I used was pink, and you can see that it gives kind of a completely different feel to the cards. You could now also cut off any extra bits of paper that are still sticking out. 9. Cards - Variation 0ne: I start working on the individual postcards. I really like to start with the China marker on. At this point, you could also use the crayon on. All I'm doing is outlining the cart. In a way, I'm creating a frame for the image. So you just grab the crayon or the china marker on and just draw a frame around the Imagine on. It doesn't have to be a perfect frame. Don't worry about the lines. Being thicker or thinner is just a basic frame or around the card. I usually go around the outside several times until I'm happy with the look of my frame. Now I'm just going to quickly show you how you can create the same effect with black crayon . It works really well, so especially if you've got kids at home, you might have some crayons at hand, so just give it a go with a crayon on next, I am going to add some things Blatter's to both postcards. I'm going to use a acrylic ink, as that would mean that the ink is going to dry a lot quicker and also that I can then create something on top off the ink without it starting to dissolve or smudge on. As you can see, I've covered the faces off the two ladies again to make sure that they don't get any exploiters on their faces on a little tip to make the things flattering a bit easier, you can use a pen instead off your finger and hit theme brush with e ink with the pen to create this platters. Now I'm going to you some white acrylic paint on the Raisa on the event of the pencil. Teoh create some little wide circles on the postcards. As always, I've got a bit of scrap paper just to to sample stamped to see if the result is what I wanted to look like. I tend to put those little circles around the frame around the edges off the postcards, but that's just my personal preference you could at those little stamped circles wherever you feel that they look good on your postcard. Now I'm ready to our some words to the first postcard. I'm going to you some alphabet stamps to Prince. A couple of words, I was thinking of printing. The word creates just to inspire me or the receiver of the car to just carry on creating and have creativity in their daily life. I've just used a bit of scrap paper on used my alphabet. Stam's. You could, of course, write worse, But I personally don't really like my handwriting. So I prefer to use stamps. Andi here I decided I wanted to add the word Go, go, create. And then I'm just gluing on both bits of paper using a glue stick on while I'm waiting for the blue to try a little bit. I've just grabbed my fine marker pen on arms, scribbling around the little white dots I made earlier Quite like to do that, because that gives those white circles bitch more presence on the way I do it. I just circle around. It is, if I was doodling on that is something you could think about while you are. Creating your car is a bit like you doodling on a piece of paper. So here I am, just also adding some little dots in the corner, and I'm grabbing my China market again on outlining the pieces of paper that have the words on them on. Then what you can do is just much the black China marker, and it would red around the edges. This works particularly well. If you've either warmed up the China market itself or just used he two or a hair dryer on the markings on, you could smudge them really nicely on it. He can see that I decided to add another little detail to the card. It's a stamp depicting a really cute little camera. Andi, I thought that worked really well with the sentiment off the words Go create on here. I'm just making use of to defib. It's if washi tape that have Bean left over from another project I did earlier in the day. But I just felt it worked really well with color scheme. So I'm just adding it to the card on. Then, of course, I'm back using my China marker. I'm just drawing around the edges off the little stamp image. Next, I thought I could use some of my gel pens. I've got a pink pen that works really well with the pink that is in Thean Midge of the postcard. So I'm here just outlining the pink splashes on the card of added some little dot details to top off the little lady on the postcard on here again. I, um just circling around the little pink markets here. I'm just going to add a little bit more off the white pain. This is the acrylic paint. I just wanted to add a little bit more structure. So I've grab this scouring pad I had because I thought that would make a new, interesting little pattern on the card. So, as you can see, I just tapped it into the paint and then just kind of stamping it around on the postcard on . Now we've got our first postcard finished. 10. Cards - Variation Two & Three: for the next card. I'm planning to use a sentence I found in a book. I tend to find a lot of sentences I like to use in my mixed media work in romance novels on this one came from a big print, which makes it even easier because you can actually see the words really clearly on the postcard. But first of all, one Teoh, add a few more details to the card, give you some of my gel pens. This time I'm going for you. Color Aziz. You probably remember that I added this crown detail to this card. I'm just trying to add a little bit. Mawr do the crown, so I thought outlining it. I would add a little bit more detail on Make it a bit more like a crown Andi. I always enjoy using different pens in this case, gel pens to add more detail to close off the models. Sometimes I just follow along set lines like here. I'm just going over the blue lines off the tee shirt, but just with the gel pen on. Sometimes I like Teoh out of more details to the actual clothing, like in this case, this is a silver gel pin on. I'm just adding kind of like a few frills Teoh top on. Then I also thought that she should have some almost like glitter in her head. Just added a few little self adopts, too. Next I'm going to use a butterfly stamp and added to the postcard I'm using a blue stamp pad. But as you can see, the imprint isn't very strong. So later on, I'm going over it with black, depending on the effect I want to achieve. I don't always Lori, how well you can actually see the stamp. But in this case, I really wanted the butterfly to be quite visible. Yeah, I'm using a brush on some sort of a post pain to just got some silver Sprinkles, too. Postcard. You could also use a toothbrush to get the same effect on. Now I'm ready to add a sentence. So I'm just using a glue stick to glued onto the postcard Onda. As a final step, I'm grabbing my black China marker on just our lining. The sentence. I'm trying to make sure that I don't right over the letter. So still read the sentence in here. We've got another variation finished. I'm going to keep NextCard really simple. I see. In this case I didn't use a China marker, but a small stamp pad to frame the image. And I'm just going very gently around the edge, so I'm achieving a similar effects. But this time it's different color, and it looks likely different. And I thought it worked really well and picked up really nicely on or the blue colors in the postcard. I don't really want to add any more details. Do this card apart from a sentence. It's one of the sentences from the pdf file. I went for the sentence. You are loved, which are thought wandering, and I sleep with a woman sort of blowing a kiss at you. I'm just trying to make up my mind, which, if the funds I want to place on the card on, then when I've made up my mind, I'm going. Teoh outline the piece of paper with sentence with the ink stamp pad, and I'm doing this before I'm gluing it on to the postcard as it's obviously it's not depend like China Marcos that I would have to do that before it goes on a postcard, and then all I have to do is good onto the card on then this card is finished as well, so you can see there different ways of finishing with postcards. You can add a lot more detail or just a little bit, and it's really up to you and what you would like your postcards to look like. I really hope that I've given you a few ideas and inspirations on how you could finalize and finish your car. 11. Final Thoughts: and here we are at the end of our class. Andi, I've got some final thoughts for you. Usually when I paint one background, I tend to have pain left over on. Then I just pains a few bits of carts dark here. You can actually see one where refused Old Wall calendar. You can still see some numbers on words peeking through, but I don't really mind that as in the end you want to see it. You can see a different color schemes I've fused on. I quite like to have a few backgrounds ready to use, so I don't have to wait for the paint to dry when I want to create a new project on then, of course, when you've got to your postcards finished, you would probably life to send them away. So you can actually create proper postcards by adding the address lines that please make sure that you comply with thes rules and regulations in your country. As I understand it, they are different and very from country to country. Just to make sure that your postcard actually gets delivered properly might be a good idea . Teoh, look it up. The second option is, of course, just using an envelope on putting your post card into an envelope, and that would also give you mawr space on the back tryto. If you would like to make your own envelopes, why not head over to my note card class, where I've provided a template for my students and also a video on how to cut and fold the envelope? I'm going to leave a link on the pdf file on in the project section on then, of course, this method is a great way off creating your own inspirational cards for journaling on. You can play around with the size off the cars. You can either keep them in postcard size or maketh, um, a little bit smaller or bigger. 12. Your Class Project: First of all, I really hope that you enjoyed this class on for your project. I would like you to have a girl on creating your own mixed media postcards on. Please don't feel you have to wait until you finished your whole project. It would be absolutely fantastic to see your process so you can start taking photographs of you just choosing the colors half your first layer. Then maybe think about bits of paper you're going to use a really take pictures of the whole process off your mixed media postcards and share them with us in your project, which would be actually fantastic because I really, really love to see all my students come come up with. Or so if you like my class, please make sure that you follow me because that means that you will be notified immediately. Whenever I upload a new class, you will also be notified of any giveaways or any behind the scenes information. And also it will help me to be seen on steel share so that other students can see this class and knowing how to make mixed media her scars. That would be really fantastic. So again, I really hope you enjoyed this class. Now I can't wait to see your project