* Creative Adventures by April Derrick

I finished the first project for my Staedtler DT Submission and I made sure to take pictures during the creating process so I could add a tutorial along with it!

* Step 1 – Pick up some of  Staedtler’s Watercolor crayons and scribble onto a Craft mat.

* Step 2 – Spray crayon scribble with water

* Step 3 – Mix colors with a paintbrush

* Step 4 – Use a palette knife to scrap fresh made watercolor paint towards the bottom of your craft mat and then lift the mat and pour into a jar filled with white gesso. (Or in my case, pour paint slightly over the jar so that it ends up in your lap! Luckily I was wearing my PJ’s (art clothes) so it didn’t really bother me too much…now if it had landed on the carpet that would have been a different story!)

* Step 5 – If needed, add some more color to your gesso. I decided I wanted a bit of purple – so I added some red crayon.

* Step 6 – Mix crayon scribble with wet paintbrush or spray scribble directly.

* Step 7 – Mix up paint with gesso and pause to admire the swirls of color as you are mixing. This is one of my favorite parts and I probably paused way to long admiring my paint because for whatever reason I get inspired by the whole mixing and blending process!  (p.s. I didn’t miss the jar on this go around!)

* Step 8 – Apply gesso to a sheet of 12×12 Grungeboard. (note: a sheet of chipboard would probably work just as well, however I really like the pliability of grungeboard and also it smells really good. Yes…I said it smells good…seriously.)

* Step 9 – Press large bubble wrap into the wet gesso and then lift to reveal the awesome new texture you just added!

* Step 10 – After the first coat of gesso dries, go back and add a few more big globs of gesso to various parts of the background. Use an old credit card, hotel key, etc to scrape the gesso around to create even more interesting texture.

* Step 11 – Repeat process of making crayon scribble on your craft mat, and then add a little Matte Multi-Medium and swirl your paintbrush around in it to create a glaze!

* Step 12 – Apply watercolor glaze all over your background and you will want to work kind of quickly on this because it dries pretty fast.

* Step 13 – Before the glaze has dried completely, use a napkin to rub over various areas of the background. This way you can wipe away some of the color in areas, help blend the color in other areas, and this will also make your gesso texturing really pop!

* Step 14 – Rub watercolor crayon along the edges of the grungeboard.

* Step 15 – Dip your paintbrush into the Matte Multi-Medium and then brush over the crayon colored edge. This will soften and blend the crayon color and also seal it!

* Step 16 – Use watercolor crayons to lightly color in some of the bubble wrap circles.

* Step 17 – Dip your finger into the Matte Medium and then rub over the circles you used your crayon on.  If you don’t want to get your hands messy …Well then you probably shouldn’t be trying this! lol Okay seriously – just use your paintbrush then, but I have to add here that you will not get the same effect that your fingers would create when smoothing and blending your colors. After you add the Matte Medium, wait a few seconds and then use a napkin to rub some of the color off as desired.

* Step 18 – I used a piece of charcoal to add a little more color and depth to my circles. I also went back over the charcoal with Matte Medium to smooth and seal it as well.

* Step 19 – If desired, you can rub charcoal over other parts of the background and then dip your fingers into the matte medium and blend it in. This helps give it a somewhat aged/distressed feel!

* Step 20 – Take a bigger piece of heavy chipboard or you could use cardboard, color the edges of it with a black watercolor crayon, and then paint over it with matte medium.

* Step 21 – After it dries, adhere your grungeboard creation on top of it to add a black mat which also help make the colors on the background pop and it also makes your project a little more sturdy. In my case, I knew I would want to lean it against a wall or hang it so I definitely needed the extra backing.

* Step 22 – Add a title, or quote using chipboard letters.

* Step 23 – Color the chipboard letters with your watercolor crayons

* Step 24 – Apply matte medium directly to each letter and rub in with your fingers.

* Afterwards, use a napkin to lightly pounce the top of each letter creating a really unique look.

* Step 25 – Last but not least, apply Distress Stickles to highlight one of the words!

Happy Friday & Happy Creating,
April