I love a good walk in the woods. It’s a fantabulous way to get your mind off pent up stress and frustration that we tend to carry around. To ponder the beauty of nature and all that she has to offer with the smell of dirt and a cool breeze against your face… there’s no better way to ground yourself back to reality. I am also a hoarder on walks- I always seem to collecting different leaves, rocks, broken glass, shells– whatever I can find as a momentum of these walks.

In this post, I’m using one of the treasures I found that has been dried and will now be persevered in one of my art journal pages.

The Crafter’s Workshop provided me with some product to create this project. The opinions I share are solely my own.

I applied a generous layer of TCW9005 White Modeling Paste with a palette knife through 12×12″ TCW874 Poppy Grid Stencil onto an 8×8″ piece of recycled cardboard from my disk bound art journal. This must be dried completely before moving onto the next step- otherwise things would get very messy.

Once the modeling paste was dry, I sprinkled a little bit of Sepia (from TCW9060 ColorSparx® Desert Ranch) in the middle, Olive Green in the bottom left corner and Burnt Orange on the top right corner (both from TCW9059 ColorSparx® Grasslands). If you’ve never used watercolor powders before, they are extremely intense! Use sparingly and in layers- you can always add more…

With only a few spritzes of water, this white page came to life! I sprayed a generous amount of water on the dry powder and let the ink pool around the edges of the modeling paste. I let this layer dry completely before adding a second layer.

I added a little more powder to each of the sections sprayed with water to get a more intense look. I really wanted the modeling paste sections to stand out on the page.

Once the page was completely dry (it take a while with all the water added to the page) I applied my dried leaves from my walk in the woods. Using a palette knife, I first applied a thin layer of TCW9011 Matte Gel Medium onto the page, placed my leaf arrangement down, and then applied a generous amount of TCW9011 Matte Gel Medium on top. I let this dry overnight before adding anything else.

If you notice that the TCW9011 Matte Gel Medium seems milky with a bluish tint- that’s ok. Given enough time the medium will dry completely clear. The medium is also available in clear gloss if you’re looking for a shiny, glossy look.

Once the medium was completely dry, I inked the edges of the page with Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad in Walnut Stain. This really helped bring out the brown of leaves onto the page. I also added a few word stickers in the top corner.

For the final touches, I watered down some gold acrylic paint and added splashes all over the page while concentrating on areas that needed brightening up.

Renae Davis, The Crafter’s Workshop Design Team Member

• My Blog: www.splendiferossity.com
• Instagram: @redhedtm
• Facebook: @splendiferossity
• YouTube: @redhedtm
• Pinterest: @redhedtm