Spring Wreath with Studio Light Markers by Helen Chilton

Spring's arrived down here so I've made a spring wreath.

Mine is an 8"wreath that I was going to use for something else and never did.

Paint it shades of brown ...

... and then scratch twiggy bits into the surface while wet.

I took my flowers from this skull stamp.

And then out came the Studio Light markers. I love these as they're so easy to use but you can get different effects.

Here I've coloured just part of the flower...

...and then I've pulled the colour out with a water brush to create a lighter shade.

You can also pick up colour from an acrylic block or craft mat to add extra, lighter touches.

With the lavender I scribbled on three colours...

...and then blended them with the brush.

You can also pull colour directly off the tip to fill in parts of the image. Note: this will dilute the ink in the marker - you can use that to shade from light to dark as the colour comes through again.

It's also possible to pull colour out of an image.

Colour in the flower.

Go over with water.

Blot.

And hey presto! This means you can lighten areas and get different depths of colour.

Once you've coloured all your images, start to arrange round the wreath. I've stuck some to the back to add more dimension and also used some twiggy bits as well.

To finish add the butterfly and a touch of glitter.

Well, I hope this makes you think of spring!

See you next time.

Helen