Mixed Media Greeting Cards

If you're thinking mixed media sounds a bit daunting, fear not!   As card makers you are most likely using mixed media already in your card making.

So, what are mixed media greeting cards?

They are cards that use a combination of mediums.

Lots of items you already use are mediums for example...

• Stamping ink
• Watercolour and Acrylic paint
• Collage papers or left over scraps from other cards
• Texture paste, glimmer paste or stencil butter
• Embellishments for dimension such as fabrics, ribbons, buttons and gems
• Pens for doodling

In fact, the list is endless! When it comes to mixed media anything that adds interest or texture is a medium.

So why not give it a try? You'll be surprised at what you can create.

Don't worry if you don't consider yourself an artist or like me you're struggling to let go of perfection.

With these cards, there are no strict rules. Just let your creativity flow and enjoy every step of the process.

Steps to a Mixed Media Greeting Card

Everyone had a different process to mixed media.  Did I mention there are no rules!

For me with my perfectionist hat on I need guidance. So, I've put together some steps to help get you started....

• Decide colour scheme and layout
• Choose materials and mediums.  Depending on the mediums you may need a heavier card stock to normal card making.
• Choose a background.  This can be a previous prepared background from your stash or create a new background. This could be with watercolours, acrylic paint, shimmer powders, gelli prints and stencils etc.
• Add Layers. Layers may be more patterned paper or stencilling with distress inks, sprays, acrylic paint or texture paste.
  
• Add a Focal Point.  It could be a digital image, a hand-drawn picture or even a simple cut-out shape.
• Add embellishments.  Doddle some extras such as a border with a pen or marker or make marks with a crayon to fill blank spaces.  Or add glitz with sequins or glitter glue.
• Add a Sentiment.  This could be hand written, printed sentiment from your computer or a sentiment from a stamp set.  The sentiment completes the card.

Other Optional Extras...

• Add collage.  Collage adds texture and pattern to your background. It is a great way to use up paper scraps.  Adhere to your background.
• Cover collage with Matt Medium on top to protect the paper.
• Add Gesso on top to mute the colours.

More Mixed Media Greeting Cards...

The next collection of mixed media greeting cards were created with the Tim Holtz Idea-ology Botanical college paper.

This was my first time using collage paper and I was pleasantly surprised. It was easy to use and a great way to use up various backgrounds from my stash.

First I covered the background with Matt Medium and gently laid the collage paper over the top.  It lifted easily for me to press out a few creases.

Once the college paper was in place I cut round the edges and then coated it with another layer of Matt Medium.

When the Matt Medium dried I set about painting some of the images with a mixture of watercolour and Acrylic paint.

The watercolour paint laid better onto the collage paper while the acrylic paint gave more intense colour.

Once dry from the painting I die cut each collage panel and mounted onto a background layers before gluing to the card base.

Each panel was mounted onto a background layer and glued to a card base.

None of these cards have sentiments as I decided to leave them blank.  It's always useful to have some spares.

Final Thoughts....

The process helped me find out what I liked and didn't like about mixed media.

I'm not into ribbons, buttons or fabric flowers.  I prefer my embellishments to be paper based.

I discovered I like the Tim Holtz collage paper and will be using more of this in the future.  In fact, I have my eye on the Christmas roll as it will be great for making batches of Christmas cards.

What type of mixed media do you use or enjoy? Let me know in the comments box below.

See Also....

Mixed Media Techniques

Gelli Printing

Mica Powders for Card Making