Welcome to March 2026. Spring break is right around the corner! In honor of the partying that typically happens this time of year, our team is getting a little wild. Want to know how we define wild? Last year at our in-person gathering we got our weird on while visiting the Portland Oregon area. (Portland’s unofficial slogan is “Keep Portland Weird”.)
From a weird pajama party to our monstery fun decorations we brought on the celebration. Whenever scrappers can get together in person it’s a reason to let loose, right
Before I get to sharing what wildness I have in store for you this time around, let me walk you through the team’s plans!
- Claire will be talking about how she keeps her budget under control when those around her are partying hard during Calvinball season. Don’t know what Calvinball is? Stop by the blog to learn more. It is the definition of wild scrapbooking! (Hint, those avocado costumes above were a result of Calvinball!!)
- Alex—if she is feeling up for it (wish her well as she’s been struggling with migraines)—will bring us her wild take on digital scrapbooking. If you want to know more now, check out her November 2025 post where she uses repetition to bring on beautiful energy! I mean just look at this lake layout over on the right. How many dragonflies can you count? Don’t you want to spend your spring break there?
- Laurie is going to use a sketch with plenty of movement and energy to bring us layout and card inspiration.
- Lindsy will let loose with some playful scrapping.
- Debbie, our newest member (see her intro from last month), will settle us back down from the spring break high. Maybe? She’ll be sharing goals and ideas. Who knows how wild her ideas are? Maybe she won’t bring us too far back to reality!
With team plans covered for this month of wild scrapping, I’m here to get you warmed up! I’ll ease us in with a little bit of acrylic paint experimentation. We are going to add splatter to washi tape!
If you have any bottles of craft paint or kid’s paint you can play along too! I’ll even use Nuvo drops as an alternative! This doesn’t have to be scary if you are new to using paints. The key is just a bit of prep so cleanup is a breeze.
I want to keep the mess low. I also need to stick the washi tape down to something. I like to use freezer paper for both jobs. It’ll hold yet still release the tape. It will catch excess splatter. Plus, as you’ll see later, it can be used to make bonus items!
If you don’t have freezer paper you can use scrap plastic from packaging.
Lay out your tape on the paper. I picked the plainest tape I could find in my stash. I only did a small amount of tape. Honestly if you are going to make a mess you might as well do more. Next time I’ll take my own advise! 😂
The next step is to put up barriers. this will catch any over splatter. That way you won’t have to clean your table (or laptop, or monitor or…) On the left I am using the stiff backing leftover from a paper pad. On the right I have a cardboard box that can be propped up to stand on its own. I place that box behind my work so I can set it and forget it.
My barriers are in place. The box in the back is standing on its own. I’m holding the paperboard in the front so I can move it around as I move my brush.
The key to using paint as splatter is to water it down.
- I pour some paint onto the freezer paper.
- I pick up water with an old paint brush. I “scribble” that water onto the freezer paper.
- Then I pick up a bit of paint with my brush. After mixing the paint in with the water I decide if it is thin enough for splatter. If you are new this, it is a little trial and error.
- After painting be sure to clean the brush well! Acrylic will crust up a brush and ruin it if left to dry in the bristles. I will rub the brush in my palm while running it under faucet water. This quickly gets it clean.
Now get to work. Starting tapping your brush to get the spatter going. If you have enough water in your paint, you shouldn’t have to tap hard.
In the photo below I tried watering down and splattering Nuvo Drops. However, my drops are a translucent variety. Adding water to that made it practically invisible. So I changed tactics.
Instead of painting with it, I just used it as drops. I quickly tap, tap, tapped on multiple spots. Once I had dotted one area, I moved to dot up another area. If you are scared of splatter, you could just do this instead! I think opaque colors would work best, but experiment with what you have.
If you made it this far you have already seen the photo below. But that is the final result of my paint session. I have lots of fun wild splatter on my washi tape. Since I didn’t have to do this directly on a project there is less fear of “messing up”. You can tear off and use the sections you like best.
Plus, doing this project gives you bonus items!! The leftover freezer paper can do a couple of different things.
Notice the puddles of paint left on the right? If you make purposeful thick puddles they will dry solid. You can then peel them up and use them as paint splatter stickers (just add glue)! See this video for more details.
If your puddles are thin they won’t peel up. Neither will the excess spatter. But what you can do is die cut those portions to create embellishments. How about cutting hearts or stars? I made mine into tags!
Below you can see my tags as well as my paint splatter “stickers”.
If you want to see this in action step by step, I’ve got you covered. The video below will walk you through it all.
I hope you feel warmed up for the month ahead. If you make any of this painty goodness, drop us a comment and let us know. We’d love to see your work! Stay tuned for the rest of the team’s antics later this month. Until then, Happy Scrappin’!