Mixed Media Morsels & more

I’ve been making some little embellishments lately to use in my collage journals. My goal is to use some of the stuff I already have – you know, the stuff that keeps piling up… gel prints, painted papers, etc. I often call myself a pilot – I “pile it” here, there, and everywhere, lol. Having a few piles is not so bad; I actually like having a stack of ready-made painted papers to choose from, when I sit down to create mixed media projects. At some point, however, I have to take charge of the paper piles and I have found that making collage embellishments is a fun and easy way to do that.

A few weeks ago, in an impromptu live stream on my YouTube channel, I took one of my gel prints and decided to draw a leaf using a white, Extra Fine point Posca pen (my favorite). Any opaque paint pen, a white-out correction pen, or white paint/ink and a small brush can be used. I drew the leaf, and a leafy stem, then cut them out, and I just loved the outcome! I knew I would be making more of these, and I did.

Turns out, making these little embellishments is a great way to use some of my darker, non-favorite painted papers. We already know that those large, busy-looking prints can be cut or torn into small pieces that look really cool, and that’s basically what I’m doing here. They’re so great for collage and they are our very own designs!

In a very short amount of time, I doodled several simple images and cut them out. I’m so excited that I now have a little container that is filling up with fun, colorful embellishments, that are ready to go, whenever I want to create a journal page or decorate a tag or envelope. Another bonus is that the paper piles are beginning to shrink. The small embellishments are much easier to store than the large paper piles and they’re so easy to use, having already been created!

I’m offering a freebie for you below. It is one sheet that contains two of my painted papers, with some of my hand-drawn doodles, that you can download and then print and cut out to use in your projects. I chose not to doodle on half of one of the painted papers, in case you would like to use some of that one as background material.

Doodling little images onto painted papers is a great way to get your creative juices flowing, and also a simple way to get started if you’re feeling stuck. So, grab your paper piles and have some fun!

See you next time,
Cat