Pastes and Glues and Mediums, Oh My!!

Hi there peeps!

Lori here and I thought I'd share a bit with you about some of the
 pastes, glues, mediums, etc. we've mentioned in our art journaling posts,
or that you may have heard of and wondered what in the world they were.

Demystify them, if you will.

Here are the products I played with:

I used the patterned paper, stencil,  and Distress Paint found in the

 August Enchantment Kit. 

Let's start with gesso. Gesso (pronounced [jes-oh] like jello) is used as a primer to prepare surfaces for wet mediums and paints. It provides a "tooth" to the surface to help paints stick better and give some added thickness to paper. It comes in clear, white, and black. 

In the top picture below, I have used a paintbrush to dab white gesso through the stencil, mixed white gesso with the blue distress paint and just painted 

some white gesso on the paper. 

You can even see how my pen is a little scratchy on the gesso...it definitely adds texture.

Here's just the distress paint smooshed through the stencil:

Next, let's talk about glues. Gel medium is an acrylic product. It comes in Heavy, Soft, and Regular and has a variety of finishes, Matte, Gloss and Semi-gloss. The basic use for these is to build texture in paintings by mixing them with acrylic paint. If you add a small bit of it to your paint it will also extend the drying time. The Soft gel is the medium that is most often used by paper artists. It can be used as a glue for collage and it is also used to make photocopy transfers. So basically it is a glue, a paint, and decoupage stuff. 

(definition found here.)

Decoupage glue, such as my favorite, Collage Pauge, is used in most of the same ways. 

This picture shows the difference in texture: you can see that gel medium on the left is much thicker.

These are used to stick things to the paper, typically. 

I also wanted you to see the distress paint as a base.

Modeling pastes are often used to add some dimension and texture. 

I used several different kinds. 

Texture Magic is a light paste. 

I left it plain  and smooshed it through the stencil. 

It is very similar in texture to light modeling paste.

Here is light modeling paste both plain and mixed with the distress paint. The top right pic below also shows the light modeling paste and texture paste next to each other. 

Regular modeling paste is thicker than the light modeling paste/texture paste and takes a bit longer to dry. But, you can see the thickness it creates.

The cool part about these is there really is no "right" or "wrong" way to use them. 

Play and experiment and see what you like to use. 

All of these are readily available either at your local craft/hobby stores, or online at amazon.com or dickblick.com.

I'd love to see what you come up with!

Any questions? Leave them in the comments and 

we'll try to get back to you with answers and advice. 

Thanks so much for reading and for your patience as our site is being temperamental. 

Remember, you can still see the August Enchantment kit in our Design Team Gallery, and our message board/forums are still up and running!!

Now, you go get messy!