Gesso How It's Done!

Hi, this is Marlene.  For this page I wanted to make a map looking embellishment showing a river.  I didn't have any paper that made much of a water effect so I started experimenting with materials I had on hand.  I've had a bottle of Gesso for some time and thought this would be a good time to use it.  Using some leftover white muslin I applied Gesso to the fabric with a Cricut scraping tool.  I know I have an artist's palette knife somewhere but the Cricut tool worked just as well.  I wanted texture to look wavy, like water.  

 

To create depth for a natural look,  I used a light beige acrylic paint and a sponge applicator and applied the first coat.  Once that was dry, the next coat was light blue (again using the sponge applicator).   Then a coat of a deeper blue was painted on with a dry, stipple brush in a wavy pattern.   A layer of glossy Mod-Podge was the final coat.  The photo does not do the effect justice because in real life it does look like a picture of water.  

 

 

The blue strip is the anchor for the layers of kraft and greens for my map like embellishment.  To tear the curvy lines for the river,  I painted a line with water, then tore the kraft paper while it was still wet.  My map roughly diagrams the part of the Rio San Juan we traveled.  Since things in nature rarely conform to a set pattern, I did not worry about outlining the river evenly.

I don't know about you, but I have a very difficult time picking photos for vacation layouts so many of them end up as two pagers.  Since I took over 900 pictures on my recent Nicaraguan vacation, compromises need to be made.  We traveled from one end of the country to the other so I am sorting the pictures by location and scrapping accordingly.  The boat trip was a highlight and deserves it's own acknowledgement.