Creative Foundations : 40 Scrapbook and Mixed Media Techniques to Build Your Artistic Toolbox

Expressing yourself with maximum creativity takes tools - an arsenal of techniques that you use, combine and modify in your own unique pieces. For many crafters, taking that step into learning techniques - rather than just following a project step-by-step - can be a big one. But once those techniques are learned, the possibilities are truly endless because they can be incorporated into any type of art imaginable. In this book, author Vicki Boutin focuses on the teaching the techniques - more than 40 unique ways to create textures, backgrounds, embellishments and more - that can be used in any type of art. Each technique is accompanied by at least one finished piece of art - a card, scrapbook layout, canvas piece or other item - and a gallery provides further inspiration, with 20 pieces of art created by contributors using a "recipe" of 2-3 of Vicki's techniques.

Vicki Boutin is a long-time contributor to Scrapbooks Etc. magazine (Better Homes and Gardens) and writes a quarterly column for Scrapbooks and Cards Today. She is a 2006 Creating Keepsakes Hall of Fame inductee and a regular contributor to Memory Makers Books. Vicki travels around the world, teaching classes at stores, conventions and retreats.