 Hi everyone and welcome back to another mixed media Tuesday. Today I have a shadow box for you and I'm going to show you how easy it is to create texture and amazing background just by using 3D folders. These folders cannot dimension to any background and make them really unique. I'm also going to use a stamp set from the latest release by Altenew and I'm going to work on a shadow box. This is a wooden panel and with these ones you can work on either side. I just choose to work on the other side since I like to have that frame all around. But you can also work on a canvas or one of those canvas panels. If you wish you can even turn it in a panel that you stick later on top of a cart. Today's project looks really striking. It makes a big impact however it is very simple to put together. So if you are not into mixed media and you are a cart maker I'm sure you can put this together super easily as I am using mainly cart making techniques. I'm starting with dark green colored cardstock. Of course you can color your own paper if you wish with your acrylic paints, with your watercolors. Now this is about 6x6. The 3D embossing folder that I'm using here is called Banana Leaves and it is from the latest release by Altenew. Absolutely love it. So I used a stamping platform, the folder with the paper inside and then on top a cutting plate. I love the texture on the background, I think that it adds so much on a mixed media project because you instantly have dimension at the background. Now I'm going to do some techniques to bring those leaves to life even more so that you can easily recognize them although they are going to be at the background so I'm not going for a very vibrant look there. I'm going to use my mini blending brushes but you can do this technique like dry brushing with any brush you have at hand. Since I'm working on a dark cardstock I know that the stress oxides are going to show on top really well. That's why I picked a few green shades as well as the new blue color and I'm going to start with the paler of the colors. For all my greens I'm going to use the same blending brush. I don't have many blending brushes I just use the same one for all the same color family. So here I'm starting with Shabby Saters and very lightly I'm going to apply the ink over the leaves. All the mountains on the embossed areas is going to pick up that color and it's going to bring them to life. It works as a highlight. I absolutely love working on dark backgrounds because when I add lots and lots of bright colors on my focal points and stick them on top of that dark background it's going to look even brighter and you will see what I mean at the end. This is a great technique that you can play with to create backgrounds for your cards as well when you are working with 3D embossing folders. Now I'm switching to another color. I don't want to have that same color all over the place in my leaves. I just want to have some variation there so it looks more interesting. That's why I'm mixing different shades of green here and there. No rhyme origin here just randomly adding color. I'm also going to go with that new patina color just to have a touch of blue there. It is even brighter than the rest so it really brings everything to life even better. I'm going to do some cleanup with my paper trimmer. I'm just cutting off any paper that wasn't embossed on the edges mainly staying with a six by six design. Now I'm going to do some inking again this time I'm using distress ink not oxide. I'm going with black shoot mainly at the edges and as I have a little bit of ink still on my blending tool I'm going over the leaves as well. This is going to add some shadows here and there. Notice I don't have too much black on my blending brush. Just make sure that you don't overdo it with the black otherwise you will lose all those highlights and you will have to add them again. Here is a close up look on what I have up to now. I'm using a text stamp and I'm going to add some stamping with jet black archival ink on the background. Adding stamping at the background adds an extra layer of interest but notice how subtle that is since I'm going with black on dark cardstock. And I can never call a background finished if I don't add some splashes. This time I'm going with the Alte New watercolor palette this is the metallic one and I'm going with gold and copper splashes. I'm not going to overdo it with water this is just cardstock not watercolor cardstock so it doesn't work too well with water however a few splashes here and there is not going to do any harm and these are going to dry shiny so they are going to add a really beautiful element on my background. I'm going to leave that aside to dry and I will work on the focal points. For my focal point I'm going to play with a few stamps from this new stamp set by Alte New this is the tropical jungle and I fell in love with it the moment I saw the new release. I absolutely love unique stamps I have so many flower stamps in my stash and whenever I see something completely different I absolutely have to use it. Now if you want to create something similar at this stage of course you can stamp it and color it with any of your favorite coloring mediums. You can go with your alcohol markers which is what I'm going to do today but you can also use your pencils you can go with your water colors just have fun with it. I'm using the green fields set of alcohol markers by Alte New and I will use those free shades for all the coloring of the leaves. I'm not going to bore you in this video by showing you how I did color everything I'm just going to use the three markers and go for it and with the magic of video editing here are all the elements ready to go. I did go with oranges and yellows and on the top flower I did use a little bit of pink as well. Now there are matching dies available and these are quite intricate designs so you can use the matching dies to cut them out if you want to but they are going to leave a white border or around. On my card making projects I don't mind that border but when I am creating a home decor or I am doing a marginal page on my mixed media projects I don't want to have that white hollow so in this case I do the fuzzy cutting and probably that was the most time consuming part of this project today. I'm not going to lie this was a very intricate design to cut out. I just had to do it and at the end of the day I think it was really worth it look how stunning it looks. Since this is going to be a shadow box I can go as dimensionless as I want to so at the back of some of the flowers I have two layers of foam tape, on others I have just one layer and I even stick down completely with glue some of the stems are rather very intricate designs. So just play with layers to make it look really dimensional. You do already have some dimension of the background as well and it's going to look just stunning at the end. Now here I did try to nest the flower that is coming from the top in between the leaves at the bottom so I had to shift that row of leaves a little bit I do have some excess but I'm not going to throw it away I will stick it on the other side. Now I have to apologize for the noise at the background the weather is so nice and I have the windows open as I'm doing the voice over so you may hear the dogs of my neighbor barking as well as the birds or my garden. Here is how it looks at the moment I am going to add some highlights this is a detail that I do on pretty much all my mixed media projects. Of course it's optional you do that only if you like that look. To help those bright colors pop even more I'm going to place that panel on top of a black cardstock the cardstock that I have underneath is the exact same size as the frame that I'm going to place it inside. So now I'm going for a quote I always like to have a quote on my mixed media project for that I die cut using this alphabet the word tropical and I'm going for tropical vibes. I used gold cardstock to cut out all those letters I was debating with orange for the letters or even green but I think that gold really is the perfect one for this composition especially since it brings those coltens pluses from the background. I did print out the word vibes and I'm going to nest it underneath and I did use my black pen to outline the word vibes you will see that at the finished photos and then I am going to stick that down inside my frame. I'm absolutely happy with the finished result I love how the colors look so bright against that dark background I love the background that is so dimensional with those banana leaves back there it's a great decoration for my craft room wall but again remember that you can recreate something similar for a page inside your art journal book or even turn it into a card. Down below in the description area as well as on my blog you will find a list of supplies used for this project today also make sure to visit my blog as there are many giveaways to be worn this is actually part of a blog hope as we celebrate the latest release by Altenew. I hope that you had fun that you got inspired thank you all so much for visiting today and don't forget to like and leave me a comment I read them all have a lovely day.