Hello! I am here to share some tips on how to use one of my favourite products – gesso! I find that I’m reaching for the gesso very often and I really do use it a lot, for all kinds of projects.

Acrylic gesso is a ground that is used to prepare a surface before painting. It can protect the surface and it also gives “tooth” to the surface, improving the adhesion of the paint. BUT… gesso can be used in so many more ways than this…!

I often use gesso instead of white paint. Gesso contains less pigment than white paint and I love that I can add a thin layer of gesso, partially covering a surface but still having what’s under neath showing through.

Here are just a few examples of all the possible ways of using gesso in your projects!

Use gesso together with a stencil, to create texture. It’s not as thick as modelling paste, but it still works great with stencils.

Cover a surface with a layer of gesso and then draw or make marks in the wet gesso. The pattern becomes more visible if you paint the gesso when it’s dry. You can also rub some of the paint away, leaving more paint in the crevices, and making the pattern stand out even more.

Stamp in the wet gesso. Just make sure that you clean your stamp right away!

Use the gesso to tone down a pattern, for example the writing on a page from a book. The amount of gesso you add will decide how much of the text is visible.

Here is another example where I used gesso to tone down a patterned paper. I painted the entire patterned paper with gesso and then added mist on top. When it was dry, I cut a part of the paper out and used on a layout. The original pattern is still visible, but the paper has a whole new look.

I love the look of misting on top of a surface covered with gesso and I love adding several layers of gesso and mist, on top of each other – for example starting out with a surface that is completely covered with gesso, adding mist and then adding gesso using a stencil on top of the misted surface and then adding even more mist on top of the dry gesso.

I recently created a layout for this blog, where I wrote in the wet gesso, before adding mist.

On this layout, using the October kit, I used gesso, stencils, acrylic paint and Glimmer Glam to create a fun background.

This layout using the September kit, is another example of where I used gesso to tone down the patterned papers.

Other ideas are to use gesso on a patterned paper to create a journaling spot for your writing, or you can use some gesso around the photo, to make the photo stand out. You can also mix gesso with paint or mist, if you want it coloured instead of white.

I hope you are inspired to try some gesso out!

I also want to wish you all a wonderful Christmas!