Wednesday Trends: Gesso

Hi there! It's Tobi Crawford here and I'm going to talk to you guys about Gesso and how to incorporate it into your card-making. 

A lot of people who are into mixed media use Gesso on almost everything they do - why? Because it's versatile. It's most basic function is a primer, so if you wanted to use paints on a porous surface and not have them sink into it - use Gesso. 

I like to use Gesso to transform things, and today I'm going to show you how to transform existing patterned paper into a custom pattern using Gesso. 

This is the original pattern. Not too bold, but if I wanted to stamp on top of it most likely the stamp would clash with the chevrons. So let's cover it with Gesso. 

This is with one coat of Gesso with a wet brush. I want a little more variance in the opacity (that's a mouthful...) so I will use my finger to apply some more Gesso. 

I didn't add Gesso everywhere, but I made sure to have some areas almost completely white. 

Now I'm ready to stamp!!

Any image can be a background pattern if you stamp it over-and-over, right? I thought this mustache would be a cool background, and I was right!! (The stamp is from Flava Sava)

I cut out a mustache (it's so hard for me to not type moustache the Canadian way...) with my Silhouette and incorporated it into the punny sentiment. 

What do you think?? Easy enough, right?? Give Gesso a try and let us know how you did!