The fun I had with the book Collage Playground by Kimberly Santiago

I only made it to pages 22 and 23 before I had to stop and get out my markers and chalk and a handful of other bits of mixed media to give these two techniques a try from the fun book Collage Playground: A Fresh Approach to Creating Mixed-Media Art.

I had tried the blocking out technique before but only in a solid color and with paint....who knew it worked with lots of different colored markers? Well, I do now!
The other technique involved playing around with positive and negative spaces in stencils. I thought I'd make a stencil first using my Tim Holtz Sizzix gear die. Then I used a bit of colored chalk with the outline part of the stencil and then I used the "positive" or actual gear to add more detail to the gear image on the page of my altered book. I used both green and brown chalk which had a nice "aged" effect. I can't wait to see what other "toys"... uh techniques Collage Playground holds beyond the first 20 pages!
More about the book from North Light Books:

By Kimberly Santiago

"Collage Playground focuses on collecting tempting elements like paper and fabric, deconstructing them and then reconstructing them into something beautiful. You will be introduced to "Collage Elements," ten simple techniques that take the mystery out of collage work, featuring combinations of papers, fabrics, paints and more that will help you create art that is highly textural and engaging. You'll see how the 25 projects are created, step-by-step, bringing the "Collage Elements" into practical use. Gain insight into and inspiration from the author's beautiful original works! "