Getting a little messy

I have to admit I am a little bit of a neatnik. When I make a page, it tends to be linear, especially when I layer papers, and my embellishment clusters tend to be strategically placed around the page. I am not complaining; it's who I am, and I like my pages. However, when I see pages by mixed media artists that are a little more random and messy but gorgeous, I study them, wondering how I can incorporate some of their techniques into my style.

I tried that with the following page. I had this piece of paper from Studio Calico (the one on the right in the linked photo) that I loved, but it was a bit busy when I layered papers on top. To deal with that, I decided to get messy.

First, I painted it with gesso, mostly a thin layer to let the patterns just peek through. Next, I misted it with several colors: yellow mostly with a little orange and some drops of green. Finally, I trimmed it by 1/2 inch on either side  and distressed the edges to layer it on top of the cards paper.

Here's some misting details (note: it took a while for it to dry, so I used the heat tool to speed it up a bit):

When I mist, I get closest and messiest where I am going to put my photos so that I will be covering up the messiest, most random part.

Next I stitched down the gesso paper onto the background (it got a little bendy when it got so wet) then stitched the background paper too. I added my layers a little overlapped, then randomly stitched a frame on top.

You can see I distressed the edges of the mats too.

And here's the final page!

I used the frame to partially cover my photo. It was a tough decision: I wanted to show everything I see when I scrap, from my kit at my feet to my family in the kitchen. I couldn't do that in a square.

It made sense for the journaling to come in strips along the side. For a change, I used American Typewriter font instead of my usual Times New Roman.

Some random stamping using navy ink, not black. To cover the smeared mist, or at least to distract from it.

Random embellishment clusters around the title and photo, plus more stamping and stitching.

Thank you for looking at my page as I play around with being a little messy!