April Showers bring May Flowers
We are talking all things spring on the blog this month. From finding unfinished projects while spring cleaning like in Claire’s post, to a splash of spring color coming soon in Debbie’s post, we have a wide variety of spring inspiration. I’m here today to talk about finding beauty in the wet side of spring.
Inspiration from nature
I live in the Pacific Northwest, which is nicknamed the Pacific NorthWET ! There is no doubt that the quote above holds true in my neck of the woods. Spring can be quite the tease here with an Easter Sunday of 77ºF then pouring rain on another day. It can cause one to feel a bit unsettled.
Many days the gray and gloom can bog me down. But then I look around and realize the beautiful plant life here wouldn’t be possible without all that rain. So to turn my gloom around I celebrate what the seasons bring. This double page layout is the perfect example.
I’ve made plenty of garden layouts before, but this is a slightly different perspective. This shows off actual flowers that I have blooming in my yard every single month. Yes! Every. Single. Month. Yeah… okay… there is no picture in December. That is just because I haven’t taken one yet. Now I have a mission! 😉
A history of drippy layouts
As we were planning the blog for April, one of the team members suggested creating drippy layouts to celebrate the season. I jumped on that idea right away! Yet I’ve created my share of projects featuring watercolory drips before; you can see multiple examples below. So, I found a new look at the subject of my garden. How was I going to find a new twist to my watercoloring?
Finding the new
It didn’t take long for an idea to hit me. I’ve been altering washi tape recently. In fact I had just bought a plain white washi tape to experiment with. I didn’t really think the watercoloring would work on the washi. Most washi has a bit of a coating that is water resistant. But I tried it anyway. And it worked! Yahoo. It was time to keep playing!
In fact, that washi coating worked in my favor. It created a bit of resistance to the water which cause just a bit of beading. That created the drippy look I was going for!
Above I was testing things out on a plastic clipboard. Once I felt comfortable, I put the washi straight on my project and went for it. I found that less water creates a more solid color. More water created more beading and diluting of the color. Seemed very logical once I saw it in action!
Why watercolor on washi?
It is true that you can just watercolor right on your background—depending on your paper! If you don’t have watercolor paper, then watercoloring on washi is an option. Plus you can get nice straight lines if you use washi. That was helpful to me as I wanted to create a grid layout. Also, if I made a mistake that coating on the tape allowed me to wipe off the error and try again. That can’t be done on cardstock!
Keep decorating!
For me the grid was the beginning of the layout. Since I love watercolor I kept on going. I did an ink smooshing (aka packaging technique) into most of the grids. This created foundations for small photos for each month of the year. The rest of the grid would be filled in with tone on tone floral diecuts.
I set about making lots of white flower die cuts. I knew I wanted to fill in the grid with pattern and texture. However I didn’t want that to take away from the color and photos. So choosing white-on-white made a lot of sense!
Finishing it up
This was a lot going on for this layout already. So finishing it off was simple. A few enamel dots and a bit of stamping was all that I added. It creates a striking layout with plenty of breathing room.
It can be hard to follow how mixed media behaves in still photos. If you want to see it in action, I’ve got a video up for you.
Before you go
I had leftover parts and pieces at the end of the crafty session. So I put together a card as well. This one ended up more subtle color-wise. So you can get somewhat different looks depending on your painting approach.
That is it from me this time around. Until next time, Happy Scrappin’!