Grafix Mixed Media Journal Cover – video

A couple of weeks back I shared my process for creating a mixed media swatch book. I used the new mixed media journal from Grafix and swatched alcohol inks as well as metallic and paint markers. You can see the blog post and video here.

After creating several swatch pages I got to work on the cover. The mixed media journal comes with craft plastic and dura-lar film pages along with two chipboard covers. I used texture paste, a stencil and pearlescent paints to create a bold and shimmery cover. You can see my process in the video below.

I was pretty happy with the shimmery circles that appeared on top of the texture and will be putting this technique to work again on some journal pages I’m sure.

I also tried something I have rarely done and that is sealing my artwork with a fixative. I took the covers outside and sprayed them with a Blair fixative. It gave them a lovely satin finish but did not smell good. I decided to leave it outside in the fresh air for a while. I had put the swatch pages back in so the whole book was sitting outside in the sunshine. Within a short time it started raining and I didn’t notice straight away. When I rushed outside to save my swatch book I was happy to see the fixative had protected the cover and the plastic pages were also unharmed. Yay! And the chemical smell was gone.

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