Let’s just be honest, crafting can be stressful! It’s always messier than expected, half the time things don’t turn out the way you imagine, it’s easy to get frustrated and even stress when creating.
We’re teaming up with Plaid Crafts to share some self care and stress free crafting. It’s almost the end of the year and it’s definitely the calm before the holiday storm! We decided we would take some time for ourselves, turn on some relaxing music and craft with no stress whatsoever…which doesn’t always happen!
Usually the most stressful part about crafting for us is figuring out what we are going to make. Typically, we start with an idea as a blueprint before we start making…of course, things organically change during the process, but we rarely just sit in front of our craft supplies and see where they take us.
Today we took a little time to relax and just mindlessly watercolor. We pulled out our materials and started painting with no idea where it would take us. Watercoloring is a great technique to help calm down your mind and body. There’s something about the movement of water that’s very meditative and relaxing.
This is a sponsored conversation written by us on behalf of Plaid Crafts. The opinions and text are all ours.
Here’s a couple of tips to help things go easily and smoothly! Even if you’re not an expert watercolor-er, the outcome is usually pretty good!
Watercolor basics – There are tons of ways to watercolor and you probably know the logistics of it but here’s the way we like to do it…incase you want a refresher!
-
Paint a layer of water on a piece of watercolor paper. While the paper is still wet, add in brushstrokes of different colored paint. Watch the colors slowly stretch across the paper.
-
Use lighter colors first, then start adding darker colors. It’s harder to blend the other way around.
-
Stay in the same color family (hot and cold) to prevent muddiness. Unless thats what you’re looking for, then go right ahead! You do you, boo!
Once we had our zen moment and our watercoloring was finished, we made some simple leaf projects to welcome in the fall!
Decorative Leaf Branches
-
Paint both sides of your watercolor paper with shades of red yellows and orange. (Let one side dry before painting the other side so it doesn’t get too soggy.)
-
Cut out a handful of leaves with stems. Tip: Print and cut out leaf clipart to use as a template or free hand leaves of different shapes and sizes.
-
Use your finger or a small brush to paint the edges of each leaf using gold acrylic paint. (We ended up having some overspill of paint and really liked it…don’t stress about having it perfect.)
-
Once dry, spray the leaves with Mod Podge Ultra to help stiffen and protect them for years!
-
Take a walk outside and find a handful of dead branches, if we can find them on the side walk in Queens you can find them too! …but if you can’t the craft store should have you covered.
-
With a hot glue gun, glue the leaves randomly to your branches and you’re done!
-
Display as part of a tablescape or put the branches in a vase.
Large Leaf Frame
-
Cut out a piece of metallic paper to fit the frame to use as a boarder.
-
Tape or glue a piece of dark blue cardstock in the center of the metallic paper.
-
Cut out a large leaf from your watercolored paper that will fit inside the cardstock. Tip: Print and cut out leaf clipart to use as a template or free hand leaves of different shapes and sizes.
-
Paint the edges of the leaf with gold acrylic paint.
-
Tape to the center of the cardstock and place in your frame.
Autumn Greeting Card
-
Use one of the leaves from the leaf branch and glue it on a blank card. It really is that easy!!
-
Add leaf table scatter inside for a surprise.
Mini Leaf Table Scatter
Don’t let any of the left over watercolor paper scraps go to waste!
-
Use a leaf punch to cut out some cute little leaves.
-
Scatter them around a holiday table, inside a card, use as confetti or better yet, make a mini leaf branch!
Happy fall, y’all!