Tuesday Tutorial: Layering Texture

Hello and welcome to this week's Tuesday Tutorial.  Today I am going to focus on one of my favorite scrapbooking subjects: texture! Yes, it seems like a slight detail, but texture can make a big impact on any kind of paper project. When referring to texture, I am thinking about the characteristics of a material. Is it smooth and flat like paper or is it rough and bumpy like glitter? My general rule of thumb when working on a project is to use a variety of textures because the more texture I use, the less "flat" my project looks. Lucky for us, the scrapbooking industry provides quite the variety of textured products from foiled embellishments and epoxy stickers to an assortment of mixed media products.  The possibilities are essentially endless and today I am going to give you several examples of how to incorporate texture into any paper project using the fun August Kits.

For this 9x12 layout, I knew I wanted to layer on the texture and to do that I had to start from the very bottom layer--my base paper.  To create the very first layer of texture, I reached for my Color Shine sprays from Heidi Swapp. These are my go to sprays because the colors are glittery as opposed to being a flat color and I like that extra sparkle. As you can see in the photo, I already had my patterned papers stacked and stapled because I like to know ahead of time where my papers and general design is going to go, so that I know where I want to drop the color on the page. For this instance I was going for a diagonal direction-from the top right corner down to the left corner.

My second application of texture was the addition of a colored paste that I applied using a mask. This particular paste is a flat color which I picked because it contrasts with the glittery mist that I first applied. Contrast is always at the top of my mind when I am choosing products because I want variety. Variety makes it interesting!

                                     

Now that my background is prepared, it I can move on to the paper layers. As mentioned earlier, the average patterned paper is flat and smooth, but there are ways to add texture and rough up the surface. The most simple of adjustments is to tear the edges of a paper. This creates instant texture and interest. Second, look for specialty papers. I chose to use a simple piece of vellum (which I also tore!) and a piece of patterned paper that had some gold foil. You can also consider adding stitching to paper or even adding in another layer of mixed media. And since I mentioned stitching, don't forget to consider thread! Thread is soft and airy and bunching up a bit of it and tucking it under a photo or embellishment is a great way to introduce a new texture to your project.

You can also consider texture when you're picking out embellishments. For example, after having chosen to use a few pieces of chipboard which has a matte finish, I wan\ted something different so I went for the plastic puffy hearts. To add a final piece of texture I pulled out a few pieces of the ephemera that had a glittery gold finish and tucked it in under my layers. Here's a look at the final project:

Here are some additional tips for adding texture to your projects:

• Not into mixed media, consider using a textured cardstock or paper for your background. 
• Mix it up--variety is always good.
• Vary the amounts of each type of texture--you don't want a lot of everything.
• Think outside the papercrafting box--things like fabric and ribbon are good options!

Thanks for stopping by today and if you create a project that features some texture, share it with us! You can post t here in our gallery or on our Facebook Fan Page! We love seeing what you all create!

Michelle