Painting a tree - Tutorial (English version)

Dear Friends,

I really love trees, animals, flowers, Nature... all my layouts have at least one of these elements. And my scrap friends always ask me for tips about painting and designing trees. So, I thought that it will be cool to suggest a simple technique to my friends, to really create realistic and nice trees: using watering paint and a straw! :D
Let´s go for it?? :D












MATERIALS
* White texturized cardstock;
* a sheet of decorated paper Dream Street Lyrics, Heartsong collection;
* a little piece of decorated paper orange/pink Dream Street Lighthearted, Heartsong collection;
* acrylic paints in colors turquoise, black, white, pink and orange;
* straw;
* soft paintbrushes;
* paper tape;
* butterfly stamp;
* White adesive Tickers;
* embellies like little Prima flowers, buttons, rubbons, etc;
* pens, glue, foam tape, scissors, cutting mat, etc.

FIRST STEP: LEAVES
Cut a 5"x 6" piece of paper Lyrics, and draw small leaves on the back side. Don´t worry about being precise! This will be used just as a direction, to raw cut the leaves later. :)


After you have drawn all the paper, it´s time to cut it all! :D Again, don´t matter if you cut "wrong" some leaves, because they are naturally NOT straight and we will wrinkle it later! :D


To do so, I like of to moisturize the paper and, in the following, to dry it fast , so it become very (and naturally) distressed. And how to do that?? Microwave oven, Dear! ;D Three or four minutes and you will have very natural leaves... :D

Here we have it!






SECOND STEP: THE PHOTO
To do the base of the picture, I´ve used another piece of the Lyrics paper, but in the other side, the one that has the lyrics, itself! :D








I cut a piece large enough to enclose the picture and covered it with small pieces of paper tape. I think it could be more interesting if you do it randomicaly and do not cover the entire surface of the paper .









Add water to the turquoise paint, in a basis of one part of water to two parts of paint. And now, let´s paint the paper, with the medium soft paintbrush.
This technique of painting over paper tape is in the book "Beyond the Unexpected", of Claudine Hellmuth, and I think that the result is very nice.









If you prefer, dry some areas with a tissue, paper or fabric, to create different areas of color in the painting.

By this time, I though that a touch of another color will be nice. So, with a dried paintbrush, I´ve spread some orange paint over the turquoise.
At last, I´ve drawn a frame, with black permanent pen, around the photo, cut the frame and glued a retangular piece of Lighthearted decorated paper, behind the frame.










THIRTH PART: THE TREE!!! :D
Now, the funny part: let´s paint the tree... :)

First of all, add three parts of water to one part of black paint. It must become very watered!
Using a paintbrush or even a spoon, put some paint on the white cardstock. Do not spread the spot.



Now, blow to spread the paint, using a straw. Drive the flow to where must be painted the branches of the tree. Shake carefully the straw, to split the spot, creating new branches.
Add more paint, if you wanna a wider or larger tree and go on, on blowing! :D






With a soft medium paintbrush, paint some bushes under the tree. Make it smooth, suggesting something like a japanese watercolor.
Next, we have to paste our little leaves. Glue it, individually, positioning two or three leaves on the tips of the branches.


Now, we have it! :)




FOURTH PART: FINISHING THE LO... :)


Let´s finish the photo, now. I´ve decided to add more color to my LO, and painted a frame around the photo, using pink acrylic paint.



Here we have the photo ready.

Let´s now add some texture to the tree. Aspersion some white paint on the trunk of the tree. You can also use another color, like brown, or grey, even green, to match your LO colors. :)


Finally, I´ve painted little white flowers on the bushes, which are, in truth, just three or four little diagonals.
Here, we are almost concluding our tutorial! Glue the photo and add other elements to your LO, like these little butterflies and some pink doodles...


... and voilá!!!!!

Hope you have enjoyed!!! I will LOVE to see your version! :D
Thanks for coming along and, please, show me your lifts!!!
Best wishes and XOXOXO,

Fernanda.