Guest Designer-Emerald Creek Dares-Springtime Wonder

 Hello, crafty friends! Today I'm super excited and honored to be Guest Designer again at Emerald Creek Dares!  Thank you to Kim and the lovely Design Team for allowing me to craft along side them today! I made a mixed media mini canvas featuring the Fallen Blossom stamp set, designed by Nicole Wright and available at Emerald Creek Craft Supplies.

Aren't those blossoms gorgeous? The blooms remind me of the cherry trees that are so prolific in our area. When you look down our street, you can see  these fluffy pale pink trees lining the sidewalks. I was inspired not only by these lovely stamps, but by the blooming trees I see right from my big breakfast room window. I can see so many possibilities with these stamps, and they are bound to be my go-to flower stamp!

I started by prepping my canvas with gesso, then added a Mixed Media Thinlit die cut by Tim Holtz. I gave it all another coat of gesso, and when fully dry, I added stencil work using the new Distress Crazing medium and a new Flourish mini stencil, also by Tim Holtz. I also added some random Crazing medium along the top and sides.  Be generous with this stuff, and you will be rewarded with lovely but tiny cracks! When this was completely dry, I went to work with my new Distress crayons in neutral colors--Antique Linen to start, adding Vintage Photo and Walnut stain to really highlight those cracks.

You can see in the photo above I stamped my Fallen Blossom flower image on tissue paper in Archival ink, and adhered using Multi Matte Medium. I colored the blooms with Distress inks and markers, using a water pen. I heat embossed the branch using an embossing pen and Ammo Camo embossing powder. While my technique stinks, the powder is beautiful.  You'll see most of this gets covered up anyway, so no worries on my technical skills. Note to self: be sure inks are totally dry before adding embossing.

Next, I added texture paste tinted with Peeled Paint Distress paint through the mini Flourish stencil in the bottom left corner, then moved the used stencil to the right corner and swiped a clean palette knife over that same "used" area of the stencil to get the finer detailed texture.  I repeated this same "second generation" stenciling in the upper right corner, using a different portion of the stencil.  This is a technique I discovered when I set my dirty stencil down on my craft mat; it left such a delicate flourish on my mat.

Once the paste was dry, I adhered my tissue paper stamped quote from Tim Holtz. when all was completely dry, I gave the entire canvas a coat of Distress Vintage Collage Medium.

I stamped and painted a zillion of the tiny blooms that come with the Fallen Blossom set on watercolor paper and painted them with Distress ink and marker in Worn Lipstick and fussy cut them out for days while I waited in doctor's offices, in car pool line and other dull moments. It wasn't 'til after I had them all cut out that I decided they needed to have some cracks! So I added Crazing medium to some and wiped on Distress crayon in Vintage Photo, and to others, Rock Candy Crackle paint. This would be much easier to do before cutting them out!

 On closer observation of the little pink puff balls that cover our flowering cherry trees, I noticed they have a delicate yellow center as they mature (going from that deep pink you see on some of my blooms), so I added some heat embossing to some of the centers using Easter Parade embossing powder.

No spring time scene would be complete without a fantasy butterfly, so to finish my canvas, I stamped and heat embossed a butterfly from my new Tim Holtz stamp/stencil set (sorry, I threw away the packaging (yeah, I know, right? Imagine ME throwing anything out!), so I don't know the name) using Easter Parade powder. I inked with Frayed Burlap Distress ink and fussy cut.

This is one of those projects where my poor photography just don't do it justice.  I tried taking photos both outdoors (it was a cloudy day) and indoors under my Ott light. You can see the indoor photo was taken before I was finished with the canvas and was checking the position of my fussy cuts.

I would like to enter my canvas into the following inspiring challenges:

Country View April Challenge-Spring

We Love to Create Challenge #8 Anything Goes Mixed Media Craft Challenge

A Vintage Journey #40  Spring is in the Air

Die Cut Divas Welcome to April  Die cut: Tim Holtz Mixed Media Thinlit  (3rd entry)

As You Like It Favorite Non-Card Project (and Why) I love little canvases because they make great gifts, used in place of a card, and are small enough to tuck into places around my home that need a little color.

Southern Ridge Trading Company Anything Spring

The Artistic Stamper April Creative Challenge-All Things Distress I've used 7 different kinds of Distress products on my project. (That doesn't include the different colors!) (second entry)

Word Art Wednesday Challenge #226-#227 Anything Goes

Happy Little Stampers Mixed Media April Challenge Wings

Craft For the Craic Anything But a Card

Cut It Up Challenge #94 Spring Flowers My die cut is a Tim Holtz Mixed Media Thinlit used to add texture to the background.
Our Creative Corner Gypsy Fayre colors from the board include pink yellow green. I'm also thinking my canvas has some of the textures I see in the shot on the right of the mood board.

Thank you for dropping by today and for all your lovely comments!  I read and appreciate each and every one of them!

Hugs and Blessings!

Sara Emily