One of the latest and greatest trends in scrapbooking today is incorporating mixed mediums into your scrapbook pages. Mixed Media art is everywhere and if you’re like me, once you get started you must have it all! Some of my favorites to use on my pages are mists and stencils, watercolor paint, pan pastels, and acrylics.

A fun and easy way to create textured backgrounds as a base to your page is to use mist and stencils.  Have you seen all of the new stencils from Crafter’s Workshop?  Oh my, they are fabulous and as you can see quite a few in my stash!

One trick that I’ve learned using stencils and mists is if you are working on cardstock, it’s best not to soak your page too heavily with the mist to prevent if from warping.  You should also let it dry thoroughly before layering paper and photos over the top to ensure good adhesion to the page.

On this page, I decided to add a bird stencil using watercolor crayons.  If you haven’t tried watercolor crayons, you should!  They are super easy to use and create fun effects on your page.  For the bird, I just colored in the stencil lightly with the crayon and then used a dampened paint brush to create the bird.  Easy-peasy!

This is my completed layout in which I used a black pen to outline the stenciled areas.  You don’t have to be precise with this step because drawing outside the lines adds additional texture and interest to your page.

Next time you create a layout, try adding some mixed mediums and get messy.  You’ll have fun!