When was the last time you picked a wish filled dandelion, and blew on it to send your wishes in the wind? Did your wishes come true? I sure hope they did! I think of wishes and dreams as similar. They are each hopes we send out, with the expectation of receiving them back. So today, my wish for you is that you will learn something from this post, and maybe try it too.

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

Recently, I took a class with Shay Michelle during our Wanderlust 2021 year long online art journaling class. Shay’s class inspired me to step out of my journal onto a canvas, to create this dandelion dreams work.

I began the project by using our new TCW929 Felicia Daisy stencil with a variety of our cool colored ColorSparx watercolor powders. I laid the stencil directly on top of the 8″ square box canvas, sprinkled the ColorSparx powders randomly and lightly over the stencil, then lightly sprayed it with water using our Spritz bottle on a fine mist.

Here’s a fun technique to try: Did you know that putting dry salt on wet watercolor will make the salt absorb the water and color, which will leave a really cool textural effect in the watercolor?

I sprinkled kosher salt over the entire stencil and Colorsparx powders while they were wet. I left the salt to sit on the watercolor and stencil overnight to ensure everything was completely dry. The next day, I lifted the stencil off, and brushed the kosher salt grains off the canvas using a dry stiff paintbrush.
Note: It’s best to rinse a stencil after using it with our Colorsparx powders, to prevent those color powders from potentially straying into your next project!

Next, with the TCW929 Felicia Daisy stencil dried, and lined up again on the canvas, I used my white uni-posca paint pen to outline the stencil. I then cut and glued yarn/twine (ivory with metallic silver thread) from 49 and Market to some of the stencil outlines to form the shaft of each dandelion seed.

I used our TCW9025 plastic palette knife to apply a thin layer of our new TCW9062 Lime Green Stencil Butter to form the inner circle of the dandelion head. Around the outside of the dandelion head and randomly in the middle, (and also to help hold the yarn in place), I applied granite chunky embossing powder for the seed bases to be attached to the dandelion head.

Next, a tore a cotton ball (from the medicine cabinet) into little pieces and glued them randomly around the dandelion to form the fluffy seed heads. I attached these with TCW9011 Matte Gel Medium to the canvas.

To add a little extra contrast, I outlined the TCW929 Felicia Daisy stencil using a black uni-posca paint pen, and I stenciled the word DREAM on a piece of rice paper using the TCW585 Inspired Words stencil. I attached the rice paper sentiment using TCW9011 Matte Gel Medium.

To add a little extra bling to the dandelion head, I used TCW9011 Matte Gel Medium to apply some aurora borealis finish, clear glass seed beads in a ring around the dandelion’s center. I also added a little black stabilo all aquarelle pencil to give depth and dimension.

And there you have it. The TCW9011 Matte Gel Medium isn’t quite dry yet, but I couldn’t resist taking pictures to show you right now!

Want to see more? Hop on over and watch my 31 second quick fly-by video on my YouTube Channel.

If you decide to try the salt technique, I’d love to hear how it goes! Leave me a comment.

Michaela Butterworth
The Crafter’s Workshop Design Team Member

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