ALAD Day 1

Hey there! Did you miss me? I've sure missed you! I got a new job and it's really hard, physically and mentally. I find myself coming into my studio and looking at all my fun things with no spark to actually make anything. Have you ever had that problem? Just turn out the lights and walk away?

I've tried forcing myself to ink up images. I've made myself color the cutest new releases. Anything forced tends to die a harsh death and art is no exception. I've also felt blocked and wondered why. I decided clutter had part of the blame, and I've been too tired to actually clean enough to have room to work. Walk. Away.

Christmas came and went and I made zero cards. Judging from the cards I received, I think a lot of us were struggling, too. So I think I'm going to try something. I still have this wonderful job, and it still drives 90% of my energy out the door with it. But I don't want my art to be held hostage.

Please join me! I'm hanging out on Splitcoast Stamper's website, hosting the mixed media challenge this week. It's a free site, and it's a fun connection with other crafters. What will we be doing? We'll be creating a project with a minimal time constraints. Each day we'll add a layer to our project. Just a few minutes and you can feel accomplished!

Each day you can check in here, or over on SCS, to see what the next step is. Today, we're prepping our paper, canvas, or tags with gesso (jess-o) and then adding a nice fat layer of crackle paste. Don't have gesso or crackle paste? Prep your page with mod podge, gel medium, or just acrylic paint. You can use white glue and acrylic paint to create cracks on your surface.

I started with a wipe-off page in my Dylusions journal. This was a page with random ink, paint, circles of tissue paper, etc. I covered it with gesso and added texture from my silicon brush.

I added some acrylic paint in circles, then overlay the crackle paste using 2 stencils and just covered the other completely.

These stencils are amazing. Visit A Colorful Life for more!

The reason for the acrylic paint - I wanted the color to show through the cracks. Now, I feel like I'm moving again! I'll set it aside to dry and we'll take the next step tomorrow!

These brushes are what I use for fast application and easy clean up.

This is how thick I lay on the crackle paste to get good, wide cracks.

Thanks for stopping by - if you join in, please use the hashtag #MixALAD19 so I can find you! You can also upload to this thread on SCS-Mix.

And a little bonus, because I had the stuff out. This is the Dylusions dyary and I'm excited to document my working days in this form of a visual record.

Cheers!
~ky