Dark and Moody Backgrounds Tutorial

Autumn of SewPaperPaint here with you today.  I don't know about you, but I have seen a rising trend in blogland that has thoroughly peeked my interest.  Dark and moody mixed media project seem to be all the rage!  I have experimented with numerous mediums to show you that you can try these techniques with whatever products you have on hand.

For this panel I used white texture paste through a dotty stencil, then splashed various Twinkling H2Os over it.  The white shows through these transparent watercolors.

 For this panel I adhered various die cuts then painted it all with black gesso.  Next I dry brushed white gesso to add highlights, then went over it all with Radiant Pearls.  Again, the white shows through different than the black, creating beautiful depth.

For this panel I sponged several colors of Lumiere metallic paints, then embossed a stamped image repeatedly in black.

For this panel I first embossed the blob stamp in copper.  Next I used Versafine ink with a grid stamp and text stamp.  I lightly brushed PearlEx powder over the wet ink.

For this panel I splashed white gesso onto my panel then splashed Radiant Pearls over that, and came back in with splashes of Color Bloom spray.

 For this panel I used white stencil paste and then splashed both Glimmer Mists and Color Bloom sprays over that.

For this panel I used a plastic card to scrape Lumiere paints onto my black panel, adding additional colors while the paint was wet for a beautiful blending.

My final panel was made by crinkling tissue paper onto a wet black gessoed panel.  I went back over the top of the tissue with more black gesso.  The highlights were created by lightly sponging Lumiere paint onto the raised areas of the tissue.

I created a pinnable image for you to pin this tutorial to your Pinterest boards.

I have turned each of these background panels into completed mixed media cards and will be sharing them on my personal blog for the next couple of weeks, so do pop by often.  But I won't leave you hanging and will share my basic design recipe as you see in this card.

First add something light and lacy to balance the dark, but still allow your beautiful background to show through.  Try lace or holey dies.  Next add some embellishments in a cluster.  You can use several flowers, or a combination of ribbon, sentiments, stamped images, etc.  Finally, add some more shimmer.  You can add  microbeads or chunky glitter, or sequins as I have.  Just experiment and remember to keep balance with your color and a strong focal area/image.  I'd love to hear your thoughts or tips on other ways to create dark backgrounds in the comments section below.  <3