Adventure Awaits - Spring Renewal

Hello! I'm excited to be guest designing at The Funkie Junkie Boutique blog for Lisa's "A Study in Contrasts" challenge. I chose to create a dimensional spring canvas for my contribution. Here are some closeups of my project and following those, I provide a step by step on how my background came together.

At the heart of my canvas, I used a piece of thick bark I found in my yard. It's dark, rough texture contrasts with those soft  fresh colorful spring flowers I handmade and had stashed for years. I think these were made using the old Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Bigz die, or it could be another die I used to have. Either way, I have so many in my drawer and it feels good to finally use them. That gorgeous stamped butterfly was also in my stash, and I just fussy cut him and edged in Squeezed Lemonade Distress ink to offer contrast to his black and white image and the neutral wood he perches on. Adding the yellow ink was also inspired by an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly I spotted yesterday while I was working in the garden--the first of the season! I used the non business end of my awl to shape him in my palm.

In keeping with the challenge theme, behind the floral display you see black geometric numbers on the left and the colorful natural design of the birds nest on the opposing side. The brightly colored foliage unfurls over and around the black, grey and brown decaying leaves and wood.

I die cut the leaves from inky scraps in my stash with Tim Holtz Leaf Fragments. And to differ from the dried rotted leaves, I die cut some other foliage and inked them with Twisted Citron spray stain. I used Bigz L Large Stems (closed leaf at the top) and Skeleton Leaves Thinlits (open leaf design at the bottom). There's also a couple of those long thin stems from the Wildflower Stems #1 set. They remind me of pussy willows. I had the black and bright green smaller foliage pieces in my stash and tucked them in at the last minute.

A Quote Chip embossed with Broken China Embossing Glaze and blended with Squeezed Lemonade ink completes my canvas. 

So let's get started with the how-to: (click on any photo to enlarge)

 I start with a primed canvas, and adhere Tim Holtz Ideaology Collage Wrap with Distress Collage Medium. The best way to get just the prints you want is to outline them with a paint brush wet with water, and then gently pull the pieces apart. This eliminates the harsh edges. I've chosen two contrasting black and white prints; one is an organic design, and the other is an inanimate design. I filled in some areas  with colored scraps to offer contrast to the black and white.

When the papers are in place, and the glue dried, I trim excess with scissors and sand the edges.

I give it a wash of watered down Speckled Egg paint, removing the paint from the colored areas with a damp paper towel. You can see I came back in later and added another scrap of colored collage wrap to the bottom right corner to provide balance to the colorful robin at the top.

To complete my canvas base, I apply Distress Crackle paste through a couple of stencils-one graceful and flowy, the other geometric and linear for contrast. I used TCW's Mini Labyrinth and Tim Holtz Flourish stencils. After the paste was dry and crackled, I applied Walnut Stain crayon with my finger to the cracked areas, rubbing it into the cracks to define them further. I also smeared some of the crayon randomly around the edges. I find it easiest to work this way by scribbling the crayon onto my craft mat and spritzing a little bit of water separately. I dip my finger into the water to moisten it and then into the scribbled crayon.

Thanks for hanging in there with me! I hope you enjoyed my spring renewal canvas. Thanks, again, to the ladies over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique blog for having me join them as their Guest Designer this week! Hugs! Sara Emily

I would like to include my canvas in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Wild and Wonderful Wild about Wonderful Nature!

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Anything Goes

Country View Challenges April 2022 - Spring is Coming (it's here!)