Identification Check - Mixed Media panel

Mixed media art panel.

There is something incredibly liberating about working in a smaller format. Recently, I’ve found myself drawn more and more to smaller scales, which led me to pick up a brand-new A5 mixed media paper pad. I am absolutely loving it so far!

For me, the beauty of the A5 and A6 sizes lies in their versatility. It gives me the perfect playground to explore stamping in two distinct ways:

• Creating Mini Panels: I love stamping and layering on a separate sheet, cutting out small focus panels, and then adding them to the sketchbook or card bases. It feels like creating miniature, curated pieces of art.
• Straight in the Pad: There is a unique comfort in working directly onto the pages of a sketchbook. It removes the pressure of creating a "perfect" finished piece and turns the process into pure, unfiltered experimentation.

  
  

  Because I want to throw a variety of mediums at these pages—from crisp stamping inks and watercolours to distress oxides and acrylic washes — having dedicated mixed media paper is a game-changer. The heavier weight means the pages can handle wet techniques without instantly warping, giving me the freedom to layer to my heart's content.

  
  

  Going smaller has completely jump-started my creativity, and I can't wait to share the first few completed pages and panels with you all very soon. I'm so enjoying getting smaller projects made more quickly. It is very gratifying.

  
  

  Here is my first.

The background for the panel was made during a crafty few days away last weekend using Katie Pertiet stamps then dipped and dried and also hand painted. (See colours below). I used a mixture of Katie Pertiet stamps and Tim Holtz stamps and ephemera to create the collage. The three tiny swatches were from a left overs box.

To build the background for this A5 page, I decided to play with the distress inks using a small Gelli plate. I started by dipping the plate directly into some watery inks — sticking to the same colour palette as above for consistency. Once that initial layer was completely dry, I lightly sponged a thin layer of gesso across the page to soften the colours and add some chalky texture. After another quick dry, I took a classic text stamp and used the leftover watery ink pool to stamp random script across the background. The result is a beautifully muted base that is perfectly primed for a focal image.

The focal image is a rub-on from one of Katie's sets. These are so versatile and great to work with.

The snippets were stamped onto card that had been dipped, dripped and dried using green distress inks. They were already in a box ready to be used.

To finish off the panel, I added it to a couple of shabby paper layers to frame the entire piece, bringing the small-scale composition together perfectly. It has green and white twine tied round it and is now safely in my sketchbook where it will be joined with other designs and layouts.

xx

Supplies

Katie Pertiet stamps - My Flowers

Katie Pertiet rub-on transfer - Garden Chronicles

Tim Holt stamps - snippets - Curator CMS493, Tidbits CMS488, Field Notes CMS396

Distress Inks - Peeled Paint, Ground Espresso, Unchartered Mariner.

D'Oxides Crushed Olive, Peeled Paint

Layer by Layer #1

 A project for Country View Crafts 

September Challenge Layer by Layer  Part 1 

I have chosen the theme for September and I am challenging everyone to share projects that have been put together Layer by Layer. I asked for those entering to show how they add depth, texture, and complexity to their cards or projects by stacking elements like stamps, paint, paper, inks, pastes, rub-ons and ephemera etc. to add depth, texture and visual interest to their work. 

I chose to start it off by using my mini sketchbook where I have been creating small and quick projects to highlight layers and products 

Calm Lavender

1. Scrape some gesso thinly over the page.

2. When dry puddle some PaperArtsy paint (Sugar Plum and Blueberry)with water, puddle it around in one place and dry. Repeat with greens (Magic Moss and Granny Smith).

3. Stamp the stamps with embossing ink, cover with the embossing powder and heat set it.

4. When the card is cool  squeeze over a little white chalk paint (Snowflake) and  again spritz with water and rub it around, take heat gun and gently waft it over the surface not getting too close. Let it cool and repeat heating until it is almost dry, then take a wet wipe and gently rub over the surface to reveal a gorgeous muted background.

5. Stamp the drawn Lavender and leaves onto watercolour paper using Watering Can. Then puddle some of the leftover mauve and green paints over them. Dry.

6. Use a fine brush or a waterbrush to watercolour the stamped images using darker distress ink and oxides. Dry and fussy cut.

7. Add some rub-ons and stamping to the background and create your collage.

8. Lots of lovely layers that bring a project to life.

xx

Supplies 

Calm Lavender

Ranger Archival ink - Watering Can

PaperArtsy stamps - Alison Bomber - AB058, ABO47

Fresco Finish Paints - Blueberry, Snowflake, Sugar Plum, Granny Smith, Magic Moss

DIs - Peeled Paint, Rustic Wilderness, Villainous Potion

DOxides - Shade Lilac, Wilted Violet, Faded Jeans, Bundled Sage, Rustic Wilderness, 

Arden Rub-ons - Katie Pertiet Garden Chronicles.

White gesso

Embossing ink

Monochrome 2

A project for Country View Crafts 

August Challenge Monochrome Part 2 

In my last post I shared the first monochrome project for the FaceBook CVC Challenge group, this is now the continuation and the second page in my creative sketchbook. Please do look back to that post to see how I started the process of building my choice of colours for my distress palette.

Find it here - http://www.bumblebeesandbutterflies.com/2026/08/monochrome-1.html

Having previously made palettes to show some tints, tones and shades of walnut stain (see last post), I then used them to chose 5 vintage brown distress inks to work with as a very simple monochromatic palette of brown distress products to create the projects.

For this page I chose to go totally vintage not just in colours but in the elements I have used. Starting with Tim Holtz papers and pieces that I had made that were left over from other projects or experiments.

The background

The focal point - one of Tim's Found Relatives.

Elements, stamped, die-cut, inked and printed.

The pieces put together.

The two pages together.

Thanks for stopping by,

xx

Supplies

Tim Holtz Distress Inks ---  Antique Linen, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Ground Espresso, and Scorched Timber, Picket Fence

Tim Holtz Distress Oxides - Antique Linen, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Ground Espresso, and Scorched Timber

Tim Holtz Distress Sprays - Antique Linen, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Ground Espresso, and Scorched Timber

Tim Holtz - Idea-ology - Remnant Rubs, Photobooth, Found Relatives

Ranger Archival Ink - Coffee, distress vintage photo, distress ground espresso

Tim Holtz Stencils  - Mini Deco Floral set 60

49 & Market - Ticket Essentials

Arden - Makers Series - Field Notes Meadow

Versafine Clair --- Pinecone

Distress ink palette designed by me

Monochrome 1

 A project for Country View Crafts 

August Challenge Monochrome Part 1

Monochrome: A noun or description for an image, painting, or photograph that consists of a single base hue along with its various tones, tints, and shades. 

Monochromatic: Is the specific technique of building a color palette using only one base hue, modified by adding black (to create shades), white (to create tints), or grey (to create tones). For example, a "monochromatic blue" painting uses only light sky blues, deep navy blues, and everything in between.

Page 1 in my Creative Sketchbook that I have been using for my workshops.

For those people who have taken part in my workshops recently they will have created colour palettes for mixing paints, created palettes to show tints and shades of different colours, and made their own little swatch tabs for arty embellishments. 

I have also now created a grid  to record palettes of tints, tones and shades ....... 

..... and completed them using walnut stain distress paint as the main focus colour with Paperartsy, black, white and grey paints and here are some of the different variations of colours I made.

I took out these colours of distress inks, distress oxides and distress sprays - Antique Linen, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Ground Espresso, and Scorched Timber to use as my monochromatic distress palette......

.... and made three small panels to produce monochrome projects. Later when laying out the elements on the page I decided to add another one.

I love experimenting with colours and products so decided I would use the monochromatic palettes, swatches and small designs to put together two pages in my Creative Sketchbook under the heading of Monochrome. You can see the finished page 1 above.

The long horizontal and wide stamped border at the bottom is good old fashioned parcel tape that you wet the back of and stick down.

Here are close ups of the elements used. I created the words myself.

Thanks for stopping by.

xxx

Supplies

Alison Bomber stamps - PaperArtsy ---  Fodder Berry Edition.EAB52, Pressed Grasses Edition EAB40,

Tim Holtz stamps - Flower Jar CMS297, Nature's Moments 001, Entomology CMS328, Field Notes CMS396, Lattice and Flourish CMS257, Bird Feather CMS180, 

Tim Holtz Distress Inks ---  Antique Linen, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Ground Espresso, and Scorched Timber, Picket Fence

Tim Holtz Distress Oxides - Antique Linen, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Ground Espresso, and Scorched Timber

Tim Holtz Distress Sprays - Antique Linen, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Ground Espresso, and Scorched Timber

Tim Holtz - Idea-ology - Remnant Rubs, Photobooth, Found Relatives

Ranger Archival Ink - Coffee, distress vintage photo, distress ground espresso

Tim Holtz Stencils  - Mini Deco Floral set 60

Arden - Makers Series - Field Notes Meadow

Versafine Clair --- Pinecone

Tint,Tone and Shade panels - designed by me

By The Sea - collecting shells

A project for Country View Crafts 

July Challenge 2  -  Summer Holidays

Sea shells collected in a tin.

Creating a clay seashell and sand dollar.

Take a piece of air dry clay and roll it out to a size that will accomodate the stamp. Using a stamp block press the stamp into the clay to get a good impression and remove. Use a sharp knife to cut around the shape and remove the waste clay. Using a blending tool and distress ink gently blend your first colour over the image pulling lightly and gently from the edges, this will give you some raised areas around the edges. 

Leave the clay to dry. I turned the first shell over after an hour as it was drying on top but not underneath - thickness about 5mm.

In the making.

Background - A5 Arena 300gms

Dipped, dripped and dried with salvaged patina, salty ocean and water drops, them stencilled through speckles stencil and spritzed what was left on the stencil with water and mono printed it over the surface. 

Next I took the bubble stencil and used chipped sapphire distress ink.

Followed by some stamping of rings and text and some swirling of blue and white pens round the stamped rings. I grunged one card and left the other cleaner.

Cut to size they have become the backgrounds for the other elements to sit on.

The tin lid

I used the blue alcohol inks to create a watery background for the sea.

The photo

I used some distress crayons to colour up the photo.

Put everything together.

Thanks for stopping by.

xx

Supplies

Tim Holtz stamps - Nautical Blueprint CMS194, Halftone & Rings CMS260, Ledger Script CMS241, Classics #12,

Tim Holtz Sizzix dies - Vacation words script 661288

Tim Holtz Distress Crayons - Mermaid Lagoon, Peacock Feathers, Picked Raspberry, Mustard Seed, Vintage Photo, Rusty Hinge (All used on the Found Relatives photo)

Distress Inks - Tea Dye, Rusty Hinge, Salty Ocean, Salvaged Patina, Cracked Pistachio, Chipped Sapphire, Ground Espresso, Abandoned Coral, Saltwater Taffy, 

Ranger Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks - Mermaid, Sea Boat Blue, Stream, Indigo,

Archival Ink Ranger - Night Sky, Watering Can

Ideo-ology - Found Relatives Occasions

Card - A5 Arena 300gms

Permanent ink pen Blue, white posca pen

DecoArt Americana - white gesso, 

DecoArt  media fluid acrylic paints - Diarylide Yellow, Quinacridone Red, Cadmium Orange Hue, Burnt Umber   This link is to the Americana range by Decoart.