Don't throw away your potpourri when it no longer smells good! Don't just add more essential oils! Make some mixed-media art!
Mixed-media is a combination of both conventional and unconventional mediums for the purpose of artistic exploration, experimentation, and expression. Sometimes these unconventional things include household items, including items that are often discarded. Why throw these things away when artistic opportunities can be embraced?
Materials:
- Canvas board or stretched canvas, any size
- Hot glue
- Hot glue gun
- Decoupage or gel medium
- Acrylic paint, various colors from nature
- Painter’s tape
- Straight-edge ruler
- Paint palette
- Paintbrushes
- Small containers of water (for brush clean-up)
- Cleaning cloth (for brush clean-up)
- Potpourri
- Pressed leaves
- Pressed flowers
- Twigs and small branches
- Acorn tops
- Stickers depicting definitions of words, quotations, or other interesting text
Instructions:
- Create a color wash using a neutral shade of acrylic paint. Be sure to cover the entire canvas and along the edges. Allow this layer of acrylic paint to dry completely before moving on to the next step.
- Draw a rectangle in the middle of the canvas by measuring two or three inches away from the edge of each side of the canvas. Run painter’s tape along the edge of this drawn rectangle.
- Paint a shade darker on the outside of the painter’s tape, right up to and over the edge of the canvas.
- Paint a white or ivory wash inside the rectangle, right up to the edge of the tape. Allow the original paint wash to show through this wash. Allow all the painted areas to dry completely.
- Remove the painter’s tape. Arrange the pressed leaves and pressed flowers in the center of the canvas in an interesting way, and then adhere them using the gel or decoupage medium. Add the stickers.
- Using the hot glue gun, add the potpourri, twigs and acorn caps. These elements can be arranged into a frame type look, or a random collage. Experiment with placement before making a commitment with hot glue.
- Add another layer of gel or decoupage medium on to all the flat areas of the piece, and allow to dry completely.
Variations:
- Shake on glitter or mica dust before the gel or decoupage medium dries completely. Use a spray fixative to secure the glitter or mica's hold.
- Use a black fine-tipped sharpie to add text, rather than using stickers.
- Add pieces of pinecones, or small pinecones the edge of the canvas to frame it out.
As you can see, there are a lot of possibilities to add a typically thrown out household item into art. As exemplified in this how-to tutorial, following the theme with art supplies and other found objects is not impossible or too much of a challenge. Let your imagination guide these types of projects.
The copyright of the article Potpourri Painting Project in Assemblage Art is owned by Jenn Greenleaf. Permission to republish Potpourri Painting Project in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
