My Little Adventure and Gesso with Acrylic Paint Tutorial

Hi Everyone! Before I tell you about my little adventure yesterday . . .I just wanted to let you know that the "Gesso with Acrylic Paint" is located below so if you want to skip my story, just scroll down.

Okay. . . now to my story. A few weeks ago I drove to the University of California - San Diego to tour the campus with my daughter. UCSD is over 60 miles from where I live - a little over an hour away. Well, on the way, I stopped by a rubber store in Carlsbad. They had a raffle going on . . .so I figured, "ah, what the heck. . .who knows, I may win" but I highly doubted it. I never win anything.

Anyway, a few days ago I got a call saying I won one of the prizes! Whoohoo!! So yesterday, I told my husband "hey, I'm going to pick up my prize at that rubber stamp store in Carlsbad". My DH said "But isn't Carlsbad 40 miles away, close to an hour drive?". Ummm, yeah. . .what does that have to do with anything? LOL! DH says "well. . .what did you win?" I said, "I think I won a brass template, ribbon, and buttons.". DH snickered and said " you're going to drive an hour away to pick up a prize that is worth less than the gas you will be spending to pick it up". LOL!!

The man just don't understand. . .I rarely win ANYTHING so I am not about to give up my prize!!! Hahahaha!! I know. . .it's sort of silly because the prize wasn't even a big prize. Nevertheless, I decided to drive the 40 miles to Carlsbad and make an adventure of the day.

After picking up my prize, my daughter and I walked around and visited the different shops in the area and ate lunch at a pizza joint. We also decided to walk about a block down to the beach. Believe it or not but since I've moved to California 3 years ago, we have never been to the beach. Coming from Hawaii, with a whole ocean surrounding us, it's a bit unusual for us but unfortunately, the beaches here in California are at a minimum of an hour away.


My daughter was really excited but I wasn't too impressed. Okay, coming from Hawaii with all the beautiful sparkly white sand. . .the sand here in California sorta looks like dirt. (pictured above).

Furthermore, the water looked a little murky. In Hawaii, the beaches are crystal clear blue. BEAUTIFUL! Not so here in California. . .it's more like a dull green/blue.

The beaches here in California are also very crowded with peoople primarily sun bathing. In Hawaii, other than Waikiki, everyone are usually in the water and you rarely see people sunbathing unless they are tourists. LOL! Really! The locals are darker to begin with and don't need to tan!! To us the beach is for BBQing, swimming, surfing, or other water activities.

This is a picture of my daughter. It was funny because we really stood out at the beach because I was wearing black slacks and fully dressed. Everyone were in their bikinis. All we did was walk near the shore and took pictures.

This is a picture of Temecula (the town I live in) taken on our way back home.

Overall, we had a fun day and I got my cute little prize. Yay! Was it worth the trip, you betcha. . .not the prize but the adventure!!

Click Here for the Tutorial

This card or this technique was inspired, once again, by Mel of "Mel Stampz". She has a whole bunch of tutorials on how to use Gesso. . .Click Here. Well I decided to try it out and it was so much fun! I have a whole bunch of acrylic paint but rarely used them because they're too heavy for regular cardstock. Well. . .the Gesso solved my acrylic paint problem. I also made another card using Gesso on Card Inspired so be sure to stop by and check it out.

If you check out Mel's tutorials and links. . .she has different ways to use Gesso.. My tutorial is a basic tutorial using Gesso and acrylic paint then embossing the cardstock with a CB embossing folder. To give the distressed look, I sanded the embossed image to reveal the white Gesso underneath the paint!!

The tutorial is a two part tutorial. . .one is the distressed embossing and the other is ehnancing a stamped image with markers over the acrylic paint.

With the acrylic painted flowers, I stamped the flowers, heat embossed it with embossing powder, color enhanced the images with SU markers, then added little beads to parts of the flowers.

Anyway. . .try it out! It's a great way to use your acrylic paints and the Gesso really thickens your cardstock up to almost a thickness of thin chipboard.

Be sure to stop by Mel's site for more information on working with Gesso. The sentiment tab on my card came from Mel's tab template: Click Here. Go check it out!! It's a great alternative to using your punches!!

Card Details:

Stamps: SU Time Well Spent, Party Punch

Paper: SU Groovy Guava, Blue Bayou

Ink: SU Bordering Blue, Only Orange Markers, Making Memories Acrylic Paints

Accessories: Mel's tab template, Rhinestone, Crystal beads, Organdy Ribbon, Cuttlebug embossing folder, Making Memories sanding file, SU Crimper