Good afternoon crafters and Happy June! This is Rachel here today to share a stenciled canvas I created for my father.

My dad has always been a big lover of desert plants and has quite the collection of succulents on the patio. This canvas makes it look like I have a lot more talent than I really do, all thanks to the beautiful Desert Garden stencil (don’t ya love that about TCW stencils?!).

I started with a 4″x4″ block canvas that I covered with vintage dictionary paper. I added some simple background pattern with yellow paint and the TCW Impressions stencil. I didn’t add much to the background because I really want to make sure the Desert Garden scene remains the focus.

I used some Whipped Spackle texture paste over the Desert Garden stencil and let it dry overnight before I began painting.

I used a variety of Twinkling H2O watercolors to paint over my scene. I used these paints because they aren’t as translucent as other watercolors, and the colors are so bright and vivid, just like these plants. I painted the first layer of colors and let dry completely before blending in the second shading color…

The picture above shows the plants painted with all the layers of color.

I used another image from the Impressions stencil to add a little more design to the background and the sides of the canvas.

I sprayed the canvas with some finishing/fixative spray to seal the watercolors and this canvas is done! I love the texture that the canvas has with the crumbled dictionary paper and the texture paste from the stencil.

I think it’s ready to ship in the mail for my dad! I hope you give this technique a try to make some of your own artsy canvases!

Rachel Kleinman

blog / youtube

The Crafter’s Workshop Design Team Member

The Crafter’s Workshop Certified Educator

Stencils used:

TCW 520s – Desert Garden

TCW 502s – Impressions