Tutorial - Silkscreen Like a Pro on Your Layout | Anna-Maria

Hello! It's me again! Warm welcome to all of you - this is my first 2015 tutorial at the Studio Calico blog! Today I would like to show you my start to finish layout. In this tutorial I show how many different ways you can use your silkscreens from the January Magic Carpet add-on. I also added a little tip how to create a title using fabulous Mia (or Alyra) alpha stamps.

Let's begin. First of all we have to prepare all basic supplies like papers, embellishments, Color Theory acrylic paint, ink pads, stamps and a photo - of course. Speaking of this photo - this little lady on the picture... adorable, isn't she? This is Jane, beloved daughter of our fabulous Paige Evans :) She let me "borrow" this picture to scrap when I wrote on her Instagram how inspired I was looking at these amazing colors.

OK - coming back to the point. I cut 12x12 ombre paper to the A4 format - this is one of my favorites lately. I decided to use this outstanding "+" silk screen and white acrylic paint to create a background pattern. This is easy. As you already know you don't need anything more than acrylic paint (or gesso), a piece of thick cardboard or an old credit card or a palette knife. Just stick the silk screen into the place of your choice (I chose the edge between green and white area in the center of ombre) and spread the paint.

I repeated it for a few times because my intention was to blend both sides of the background.

During this time when the background is drying we can create an extraordinary embellishment using the second Shine silk screen. I took a piece of white cardboard (I think that it was a piece of paper from the stamps pack) and my favorite acrylic Sunny Day paint. I repeat the same action - stick the silk screen to the background, spread the paint, remove the screen from the paper and clean it immediately. I think this is very important to clean the screens just after use because than you can be sure that all of these little holes will be clean, and if they will be clean than your prints will be better, cleaner and sharper. So take care of your silk screens, they deserve to be clean :)

OK, the background and the embellishment are ready, how we can use the third HELLO screen? I think that the perfect way is to use it as a title! Yes, I think this is a good idea and I recommend you to try this technique on a layout. However, this time, I decided to create a different title for my project. I got the fabulous Mia alpha stamp, and when I saw it I knew that I had to use it somewhere. I decided to use it on this layout and I knew that I wanted to get bright, yellow letters. Usually it's impossible to stamp yellow motifs on a dark surface and keep them bright, so my first thought was to stamp it on a white cardboard.

And that's what I did. I stamped my title on a white paper (so sorry for these ugly pictures but during winter months in Poland it's dark in the afternoon, so I used an artificial light).

Next I contoured the letters using thin, black precision pen

I started to stick the photo and other elements to the background. During the combining process I thought that it would be nice if I add a phrase stamp - also from the Magic Carpet scrapbook add-on. Once again - I knew that it won't be satisfactorily visible on a dark green background so it was a quick decision - I used white embossing powder. I adore to mix various techniques like here - stamping, masking, paint, embossing, layering... the mix of all these actions give a special feeling to the project, especially when you look at it in real life.

This is it. You can check looking at the final layout how I placed the embellishments and how it works together on a surface. I always think about blending elements, I like when everything create one, harmonious totality.

I hope you feel inspired. I think that I showed you that you can use three different silk screens in three various ways (and probably far more...). Don't be afraid! This is not a dirty hobby. I am a mixed-media scrapbooker but believe me - I don't like dirty hands. You can be mixed-media and clean (and happy). Just take care of your tools and everything will be easy.

I wish you a happy day full of silk screens action :)

Magic Carpet add-onWishing Star add-onMia Alpha Stamp SetColor Theory acrylic paintink pad; Black Precision 01 Penwhite ZINK embossing powder