Lavender Mixed Media Tutorial

Hello friends! I hope you are all well and healthy. These times are tough in the whole world and it is important to try to stay positive and not to panic. Crafting and getting out in nature are good ways to calm the mind, at least for me.

Today, I am sharing a mixed media lavender tutorial, with a piece of recycled cardboard as a base. You can turn it into a card instead, by just adhering the cardboard to folded cardstock. Or make a cardboard tag.

At the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog we have a Stencil It theme and I hope you can join us. Don't miss the beautiful project by our March guest designer Ann Chuang. 

I was tidying up my desk when my eye fell upon this piece of cardboard and I decided to make something out of it right away. I wanted quite a bit of the raw cardboard to show, but I also wanted a smooth surface in the center which would work for some mixed media magic. Gesso was the answer to this. The Lavender stencil that I used is by Darkroom Door.

Start by removing some of the upper layer of the cardboard around the edges. Then apply gesso with a palette knife. Let it dry and add one or two more layers, so that you get a fairly smooth surface.

Apply texture paste through the Lavender Small stencil with a palette knife. Let dry.

Paint with watered down Shabby Shutters and a little Peeled Paint. I was aiming for a light look. Let dry.

Place the stencil back on the design and sponge two shades of purple through it with a small ink-blending tool.

Paint the stems green with a fine paint brush.

When the paint was dry, I added lines and highlights with a white gel pen.

Glossy Accents is one of my all-time favorites, but I hadn't used it for a while, so I decided to make the flowers glossy. Leave to dry.

I stamped sentiments from the Darkroom Door Nature Walk set.

Here you can see the effect of the white gel pen on the flowers. I also added some pearls.

I like the texture created where the gesso meets the cardboard. It is in fact my favorite part of this project.

The label was stamped with Simon Says Stamp Lavender ink using the new Darkroom Door Lots of Labels set, and the sentiment comes from the Make Art sentiment stamp, also by Darkroom Door.

It is difficult to capture the dimensional glossy surface on a photo, but I think you can see it better here. It's a fun addition to any stenciled design.

I was in the mood for a light shabby chic project this week. If you want to make a grungier version of this project, it is easy to do by, for example, adding brown paint around the edges and giving the lavender a dark shadow.

I hope you will join us this week in our Stencil It challenge. As always, you have a chance to win a $50 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until next Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Don't forget to follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff daily. 

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog today!  

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

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