Hi Friends! Today I’m sharing a mixed media project featuring the new Wildflower Stems 3 dies by Tim Holtz and Sizzix. I love to watercolor, but by no means am I as good as some of those I’ve seen on YouTube. The more I practice, the better the results have been but I still have a long way to go. I find watercoloring very relaxing and these wildflower stems are so fun to paint. Below is a tutorial on how I created the background for my panel and how I put it all together. Enjoy!
Begin by cutting a 4-1/8″ x 7-1/2 piece of Distress White Heavystock cardstock. Over on the side, on a craft mat, spray Tumbled Glass Distress Spray Stain onto the Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Halftone stencil. Pick up stencil and place it over the cardstock. Blot off excess spray with a towel. Carefully lift the stencil off the cardstock. Dry with a heat tool.
Tear pieces of Tim Holtz Typeset Collage Paper and apply in random areas using Distress Collage medium under and on top of the collage paper. Completely dry with a heat tool.
When the panel is dry, cut off the excess collage paper hanging over the edges of the panel. Apply a layer of Distress Crackle Texture Paste over the center area of the panel. Completely dry.
Dry brush a thin layer of white gesso over the areas covered with collage paper and completely dry.
Gently color over the dried crackle texture paste area with Hickory Smoke Distress Crayon. Moisten your fingertip and gently rub in the pigment so it falls into the cracks and crevices of the crackle paste. Dry with a heat tool.
Apply the Tim Holtz Wildflower stencil to the background of the panel with Hickory Smoke Distress Archival Ink.
Color the Wildflower Stems 3 with Distress Re-Inker ink in the colors you desire. I used Distress Palettes to create a palette of all the Distress Ink colors. I find this a fun and easy way to watercolor. I pick up a bit of concentrated ink and apply it to the flowers. I then use a waterbrush to move the ink around.
Arrange your flowers, a frame and some Idea-ology elements and just play around and have fun.
Add a few more pieces to balance everything out. It’s fun to just get out your trays of Idea-ology pieces and see what works and what doesn’t. I enjoy this process, but I have to admit, it’s the hardest for me. I also struggle with sentiments so many times, I skip a sentiment and it works but sometimes it doesn’t. My main point is to just have fun and enjoy the process.
Before adhering the Idea-ology pieces onto the panel, I ink the edges with Hickory Smoke Distress Archival Ink using an ink blending tool. I splatter some Black Soot Distress Paint mixed with water over the panel with a splatter brush. I paint the edges using Black Soot Distress Paint with a dauber top by running the dauber filled with paint along the edges of the panel. Dry with a heat tool. I then adhere all the pieces down onto the panel. I cut a piece of Simon Says Stamp Black cardstock using the Tim Holtz Deckle Torn Edge paper trimmer and mount the main panel onto that piece and my project is done.
I hope you enjoyed seeing how I put this wildflower mixed media panel together. Thanks so much for stopping by, I really appreciate you spending your time here with me.
