Hello! I am a TCW Brand Ambassador, and my name is Amy. I was asked to document my project for the TCW Spring Challenge. I am so excited to share my project with you!
We would love for you to participate in the challenge, and there’s even a prize – see the bottom of this post for details!
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To begin, I started with a 6×6 TCW9053 Mixed Media Board with the new winter release stencils. It’s so sturdy and I knew I wanted to use some watercolors, so I figured this substrate would be perfect! I added some TCW9001 White Gesso with a makeup sponge through one of my new favorite stencils – TCW904 Petal Burst by Rebekah Meier.
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I then grabbed two of my favorite blue Ecoline Watercolors to blend over the gesso which acts as a resist for the watercolor. I love to have a stenciled background texture even though it doesn’t always show in the final piece.
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I knew I wanted to create a bird’s nest with eggs, and as I sorted through my stencils looking for inspiration, I came upon TCW870 Fir Branch by Carmen Medlin. I used the pine needles as sticks to “build” my nest. I’m always trying to envision new ways to see the stencils as different things.
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A nest needs eggs, so I grabbed some watercolor paper and a few more Ecoline watercolor shades in green this time. I sketched the trio of eggs then colored them in. They definitely needed speckles, so I hunted down TCW359 Microbial by Jamie Echt to add some spots. True confession time – I never think anything is truly complete without a good splatter, so I splattered the eggs with both some Dina Wakley Media paint in Sand and some Finetec Gold watercolor.
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Then it was time to add the eggs to the nest! The nest needed a lot of work, and I decided to add a whimsical quality by incorporating some vintage music and book page strips as well as several more layers of the Fir Branch stencil.
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In my mind, I saw the nest surrounded by lots of spring foliage, so the next step was to create the greenery. I reached for two of my favorite leafy stencils. Since I hate to play favorites, I decided to use them both! When stenciling on top of another color, I find it helpful to stencil first with gesso and then with the paint color I want to show. This keeps bleed through at a minimum since I’m usually mixing lots of supplies. I used TCW862 Maidenhair Fern by Carmen Medlin with both a darker and lighter shade of green.
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The next set of leaves were added using the same technique of using gesso first then adding color. I used TCW831 Faithful Tree by Balzer Designs and the same two green shades for this layer.
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At this point, I was feeling disappointed in the project. I wasn’t sure why I didn’t love it, but then it came to me – I LOVE color. LOTS of color! My project just needed a color infusion! What better way to add color than to add flowers? I used TCW921 Word Stems by Gabrielle Pollacco to add some sweet pink flowers using Liquitex Basics paint and Dina Wakley Media in fuchsia. I also added a dark brown border with a Marabu Art Crayon to frame my piece.
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The last thing I did was add gold splatters to the entire piece to give it a little magic and pop on the Dreamer of Dreams sticker from my Tim Holtz Chit Chat sticker book.
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I can’t wait to see what you create for this challenge – here are the Spring Challenge guidelines.
Please reach out on Instagram – I’d love to meet you! You can find me @craftygirl66
I loved the tip about using gesso before adding the color. I think that slight bit of raised texture would definitely enhance the piece instead of overpowering it like using modeling paste can sometimes. Thanks.