Lisa Saunders Paint Techniques

Paint Tutorial

I’ve become a bit of a paint addict over the past few months. I am more than happy to just slap it on but I know from speaking to fellow scrappy friends that the thought of doing this straight onto papers or photos is quite a scary thought. So I thought I’d show you some of my favourite ways to play with paint. Here are 2 quite different LO’s using different techniques.

Layout : Interest

This is the kind of LO I make whilst making dinner.
There’s lots of stop starting and waiting to dry.
This LO really does start with slapping it on. I do always start with placing my photo on my page first and pencilling in a few lines so I know where to paint to and where not to paint past.

I’ve put some gesso onto my page and then just brush it from side to side until I have it covering where I want it. All brush strokes going the same way.

You then get this look.



Once your base is dry, stick your photo in place. You now want to paint yourframe. Load a brush up with paint and swiftly and confidently paint along the edge of your photo so you paint part pageand part photo, do this with all 4 sides keeping in the same direction. Leave to dry.

I now create my rays of sunshine. Using masking tape cut some strips into angles (see photo) and stick down keeping in mind that the paint will obviously only show where the tape isn’t stuck. You only need a tiny amount of paint for this and I prefer a thick stumpy paintbrush for this effect. I tend to use a small amount of paint in the lid of my paint dabbers.

You now need to dab around the masking tape to create a stippled effect. When you’ve finished and it’s dry gently lift the tape off.
You can now carry on with your LO. Adding embellishments and journaling.

I decided to paint over my chipboard alphas and photo corner.

Once my LO was finished I watered down some of the red paint (the paint dabbers again) using a long thin brush this time and and splashed some thin paint along the bottom and on the right side of the LO. Be warned though, the paint may not always go where you want it to when you do this but it’s a great effect and lots of fun.

Layout : Remember When

This LO is abit more free and easy. No rules, no guidelines, just enjoyment.


I’ve put some gesso onto my page again and then taken the roller and just rolled out in different directions to create a base for the LO.


This is then left to dry.


I’ve used a piece of mesh and simply held it down and painted
 over to create a grid effect.


I have another roller which has numbers on and again just rolled over. I’ve done this randomly in a few places on the LO so it becomes part of the base.


To add some texture, I scrunched up some tissue paper, stuck it down and painted over the top. Another good thing with using paint is that you can add things to it when it’s wet and it dries in place. Here I sprinkled some glitter. You could add sand to a beachy LO, sequins, small beads etc…


I’ve painted a chipboard butterfly in the same gesso and decorated using H20 shimmer paints and stickles.


I made my own journal tag by using a rubon and then painted with the H20 shimmer paints again.



Then once all the paint is dry you can layer up, add your photos and embellishments.