Acrylic Layers Background

Had lots of fun creating this background paper you see to the left.

I'm going to be participating in my first "skinny" book (pages are 3-1/2" x 8"). This is the same group that I did the pages for a "Me & My World" chunky. One of the pages in the chunky that I love (I love them all) was done by Margaret using lots of acrylic paints. You can see the page I'm talking about on Margaret's blog, make sure you double click the photo to get a good look at the lovely texture, etc. I'd had my hands on one Margaret's creations before, when I received a gift from her in the 12 Days of Christmas Swap. This beautiful pages gave me the desire to play with layering acrylic paints.

I started with 3 sheets of 12" x 12" light blue Brazzil paper. I like the side with the cross grain look & texture. Because I needed time to make patterns and wanting to let the blue paper underneath show through, I mixed Acrylic Glaze with metallic silver (and a little metallic pearl white to lighten the silver) and spread it over the surface of the paper. I let it sit for just a few minutes, then painted a mixture of Acrylic Glaze with gold metallic acrylic paint over the entire surface. I used a special "comb" to create the swirl pattern you see below and let it dry (overnight as it was getting late).

This morning I cut the paper into the 12 pieces of 3-1/2" x 8" for my upcoming swap. I picked out some different patterned objects to work as stencils and used a makeup sponge to add some color the background. These dried quickly.

Decided the silver got lost with everything else and need MORE color & texture on this layered background. I sponged some metallic silver acrylic paint onto a flourish stamp and stamped all along the edges to get more color & texture on my background. (Remember if you use acrylic paint on stamps, clean them immediately) I like how the metallic acrylic paints change in intensity as you move the paper in the light. This photo below is the same piece I've shown in the top of this post.

Now to start cutting out images and to come up with a design for the back pf the pages. More to follow......