Faux Mixed Media

I loved the look of the mixed media projects that were shown at the Stampin' Up! convention last year.  They were so fun and I really wanted to make a version of my own.  I never did though :(  They required paint and canvas and I just never got around to getting those supplies and other projects always came first.  Well, the other day I was thinking about them again and as I am living through the very cold winter days, I did not want to go to the hobby store for paints or a canvas.  I decided to see what I could do in MDS.  
Once you look though this post, I hope you stick around to the end, because I want to show you how you can use this background template again and again with just a few changes.  If my kids quiet down, I hope to make a video :)
I started with a newsprint background.  There are several available in MDS.  This project uses Mixed Medley.  Next I looked for stamps that looked like a color wash.  I decided to go with Happy Watercolor.

I applied the two different stamps to the page several times each.  Next I enlarged them and rotated them and mirrored and flipped them so they looked different from each other, then i recolored them all Pool Party.   I then added the dot stamp, also from Happy Watercolor, to the center of the page. 
Next I looked through my stamp brush sets using the search feature. I put "Flower" into the search box and scrolled through until I found a doodle looking flower.

Next I added the stamps to the page, playing around with the sizes until I liked the way it looked.  I also searched for a heart outline, because I wanted it to anchor my daughters name.  I added the heart stamp, then reduced the opacity to 75%.

 

Nexted I played around with how to print it out.  I first printed my page out on Whisper White paper, which turned out really good.  I also tried printing it out on watercolor paper, which also worked nicely and gave my page some nice texture.  

But then, I was sort of afraid to add the color.   I really liked the way it looked and I didn't want to mess it up.  I decided to make it smaller so I could fit 4 on a page, to use as practice.  I exported the page to my photo folder.  Next I opened a new blank page and added 4 photo boxes, 4 x 4 each, and added the page I had created as if it were a photo.  

I printed this page out and started to color in the stamps with my aqua painters.  I intentionally painted the stamps in pretty fast because I wanted them to look really hand painted and whimsical.  

 Once I liked how it looked I did the same with my large page, and I had four smalled pieced that I thought would make really nice cards.   I then went back to my MDS program to make the text blocks.  I opened a new page and added text boxes, filling them in with various texts in several sizes because I wasn't sure exactly what would fit or how much to add.  I printed the page out and started to cut out the words so that they were all separate pieces. 

 Here are my finished cards. 

I mounted them onto 4 1/4 by 8 1/2 Pool Party cardstock, folded in half.  I only pictured three because I already sent one of the birthday cards to my friend Charlotte.  I hope she liked it :)