New look little extra!

Welcome to the first new look little extra! We've decided that each of the design team will take it in turns to host the new look little extra. This will be in the form of a little tutorial, or a focus on a specific product, or maybe just some makes using lush stash that a particular designer is fond of at the time. Anyhow, it's Jozza here, a relative newbie to the team. I decided "in for a penny, in for a pound" and volunteered myself for the first new look little extra.

I decided to have a go at three different uses of acrylic paint on my cards. I am by no means an expert on using acrylic paint (as you will see! lol) and to be honest, the reason I chose this was to actually use the paint dabbers that have been lingering in the bottom of my stash pile for quite some time.....

Sooooo...onto card 1.

This one is my favourite of the 3 that I made. I started out with a lovely sheet of paper (My Mind's Eye - Bohemia - Bella "mother" bird) and I picked out 2 colours of acrylic paint (in the end I only used 1 - eggplant)
I watered the acrylic paint down and applied it to a white square card blank in side to side strokes. You don't need anything posh to water the paint down - I just splodge some on the plastic cover of an ink pad and add water with my brush until I'm happy with it. For the effect I was after (purple sky) I added more water as I went down the page. It's a great feeling painting a background 'cos (sshh don't tell my kids!) I LOVE getting messy :o)

Once you've finished painting you need to let the card dry. Acrylic paint tends to dry fairly quickly as it's water based. The card will probably warp a little as it's drying but it's easy to bend it back into shape as it dries.
Once the paint dried I couldn't resist a little doodly border :o)
Next stage is the fiddly cutting out part. I kind of like that too. I do like fiddly finnicky jobs!
Here is the finished card. I stamped a Paperartsy stamp on the top left corner, first in white ink, then in black.
Here are a couple more cards using acrylic paint...

Card 2

I took a chipboard frame and painted it with gold acrylic paint. It's a great way to highlight a simple image on your card. A bit of doodling and the addition of some Bazzill rub ons & rhinestones make it a quick and easy card.
And lastly, card 3

Try copying a stamp design onto your card. I copied a swirl from an Autumn Leaves set (Mindy's Flowers). It doesn't have to be too accurate. Sometimes I like it if a card isn't too polished and perfect.
Using acrylic paint (I used white) go over the pencil drawing. This is where you learn (in my case anyway) that you need to invest in a decent set of brushes. My brushes are rubbish for painting swirls! I found I needed to water the paint down a fair bit for this. Once dry, stamp over the painted swirl in black ink.
Add some bits and pieces to "tart" up your card and voila!
The paper used on this card is Basic Grey periphery (Vineyard). Buttons, ribbon and brad are from my stash.

I do hope you've enjoyed this little extra. You may not have learned anything groundbreaking (except that I can waffle on!) but I hope it's made you want to play with paint a little bit.

We'd all love to see what you make if you do decide to have a go so please post a comment and link if you do.

Thanks for looking
Jozza xxx