Hello, fellow creatives and mixed media enthusiasts! Rebecca, also known as Cre8tiva, is here to guide you through a truly enchanting project: a detailed French Spring Mixed Media Tiles Tutorial. The inspiration for these delightful creations struck me recently when an artist friend shared some captivating tiles on Instagram. I was instantly drawn to the concept of these miniature artworks. They offer a fantastic opportunity to dive into creativity, explore new textures, and even stretch your artistic skills in new and exciting ways. I absolutely adored bringing these to life! So, prepare to immerse yourself in a world of vintage charm and tactile beauty. Join me in my creative sanctuary as we craft some beautiful French Spring Mixed Media Tiles together.
This project combines the elegance of French vintage imagery with the organic beauty of nature, resulting in unique, multi-layered art pieces perfect for adding a touch of whimsy and sophistication to any space. Whether you’re a seasoned mixed media artist or just starting your journey, this tutorial offers a rewarding experience, encouraging experimentation and personal expression. Get ready to transform simple materials into captivating works of art!
To embark on this artistic adventure, we will be utilizing some exquisite elements from The Graphics Fairy collection, renowned for its treasure trove of vintage images. These carefully selected printables will serve as the focal point of our mixed media tiles, lending that authentic French Spring aesthetic we’re aiming for.
Here are the key digital elements I sourced from The Graphics Fairy:
- French Handwriting Transfer Printable: This elegant script adds an immediate touch of vintage French sophistication, forming a beautiful foundational layer for our tiles.
- Beautiful Vintage Spring Flower Girl: The charm and innocence of these classic flower girl images are perfect for capturing the essence of spring and youthful dreams.
- Spring Flower Girl: Another delightful variation, offering diverse poses and expressions to enrich our tile collection.
- Sweet Vintage Flower Child: Completing our trio, this image reinforces the whimsical and natural feel of the project.
Essential Supplies for Your French Spring Mixed Media Tiles
Creating these mixed media tiles involves a wonderful blend of readily available craft supplies and unique natural elements. Gathering your materials beforehand will ensure a smooth and enjoyable creative process. Remember, mixed media art often thrives on adaptation, so feel free to substitute items where appropriate or experiment with what you have on hand.
*This post contains affiliate links for your convenience, which means if you make a purchase through these links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
- My French Handwriting printable for you to download and print. This will be a core element, bringing an authentic antique feel to your canvas base.
- Chip board (I repurposed mine from a cereal box, demonstrating how everyday items can become artistic foundations). Chipboard provides a sturdy, yet lightweight base for our tiles.
- Golden White Gesso. Gesso is crucial for preparing your chipboard surface, providing a smooth, absorbent, and bright base for subsequent layers of paint and medium.
- Hair Spray or Artist Fixative. This is essential for sealing your printed images and handwriting, preventing ink smudging when wet mediums are applied.
- Golden Regular Gel Matte Medium. A versatile adhesive and sealant that binds layers together and adds a protective finish.
- Martha Stewart Crafts Soft Gel Watercolor Acrylic Paint – specifically in shades like Beach Glass (for a serene blue-green hue), Wild Salmon (for a warm, delicate pink), and Yellow Jacket (for a cheerful, vibrant touch). These soft gels offer beautiful translucent washes.
- Old teabags, dried and empty of tea. These humble items are excellent for adding unique texture and an aged, organic feel to your collage layers.
- Nature items from your yard – think delicate twigs, soft feathers, lush moss, or dried hydrangea flowers. These elements ground the artwork in nature, enhancing the ‘Spring’ theme.
- Pearl beads – choose a size that complements your art. Pearls introduce a touch of elegance and subtle shimmer.
- White Acrylic Paint. Useful for dry brushing effects, adding highlights, and softening colors.
- Unmounted Words Rubber Stamps similar to mine – such as the “Out of Print Impression Obsession Express Yourself” set. These allow you to add meaningful words or sentiments to your tiles.
- Stamp Pad – Brilliance Cosmic Copper. A beautiful metallic ink for stamping, providing a subtle shimmer that complements the vintage aesthetic.
- 3 – 4″ square mini canvas pack. These small canvases serve as the final backing and frame for your individual mixed media tiles, adding depth and a professional finish.
- Scrapbook Adhesives 3L This 3D Foam Spots. These foam dots are key for creating elevation and a captivating three-dimensional effect when attaching your finished tiles to the canvas.
- Scissors.
- Artist brushes (various sizes).
- Optional: Craft knife and metal ruler (for precise cutting of chipboard).
French Spring Mixed Media Tiles Tutorial: Step-by-Step Creation
This tutorial is designed to guide you through each stage of creating your stunning French Spring Mixed Media Tiles. Take your time, enjoy the process, and remember that mixed media art is all about exploration and embracing unique outcomes. Let’s begin crafting these beautiful, layered artworks!
Step 1: Prepare Your Chipboard Bases
Begin by cutting your chipboard material into three uniform 3-inch squares. Chipboard, often found in recycled cereal boxes, is an excellent choice for its rigidity and sustainability. It provides a robust yet lightweight foundation for your mixed media artwork. While a craft knife and metal ruler offer the most precise cuts, feel free to use scissors if that’s more comfortable or accessible for you. The key is to achieve consistent sizes for your art tiles.
Step 2: Apply Gesso for a Prepared Surface
Once your chipboard squares are cut, apply an even coat of Golden White Gesso to one side of each tile. Gesso acts as a primer, sealing the surface of the chipboard, preventing subsequent layers of paint and medium from being fully absorbed, and providing a slight ‘tooth’ for better adhesion. For an added layer of visual interest and tactile dimension, I intentionally allowed my brush marks to show through the gesso. This creates a subtle texture that will peek through your collage layers, enhancing the handmade feel of your French Spring art. Allow the gesso to dry completely before moving on.
Step 3: Print Your Vintage Images and French Handwriting
Now it’s time to bring your vintage elements to life. Print three copies of the exquisite Spring Flower Girl images and, importantly, three copies of the French Handwriting printable. I’ve thoughtfully prepared a downloadable version of the French Handwriting specifically for this project, saving you the effort of sourcing or creating your own. Having multiple copies of the handwriting is essential, as we’ll use them to wrap our mini canvases in a later step, creating a cohesive and beautifully layered presentation for your mixed media tiles.
My French Handwriting printable (Make sure to download and print three copies!)
Step 4: Create Deckled Edges for Your Flower Girl Images
Carefully tear around the edges of each Spring Flower Girl image. The goal is to create a soft, deckled edge that complements the organic nature of mixed media collage, rather than a sharp, cut line. This technique adds an authentic vintage feel. To achieve a beautiful deckled edge, first, gently fold along your desired tear line in both directions (forward and backward). Then, lightly wet the fold line. You can use a damp sponge for this or, as a quick artist’s trick, even lick the line! Once dampened, carefully peel the paper back over itself towards you, while firmly holding the image down. This method helps create those lovely, fibrous edges that integrate seamlessly into your collage, adding depth and character. Don’t worry if the images don’t perfectly fit your chipboard squares; we’ll fill the remaining space with other delightful elements.
Once torn, you’ll see how they lay on the chipboard. This imperfect fit is part of the mixed media charm, inviting other textures and layers to join the composition.
Step 5: Protect Your Images with Fixative
Before applying any wet mediums, it’s crucial to protect your delicate printed images. Lightly spray each Flower Girl image (and your French Handwriting papers, from Step 3) with hairspray or artist fixative. This step seals the ink, preventing it from smudging or bleeding when you apply gel medium or paints later on. Always perform this step outdoors or in a well-ventilated area to avoid inhaling fumes. Allow the fixative to dry completely before proceeding to the next step, ensuring maximum protection for your precious vintage prints.
Step 6: Adhere Flower Girl Images to Chipboard
Using Golden Regular Gel Matte Medium, adhere the prepared Flower Girl images to the gessoed side of your chipboard squares. Apply a thin, even coat of gel medium to the back of the image, carefully position it on the chipboard, and gently smooth out any air bubbles from the center outwards. Once the image is in place, brush another thin layer of gel medium over the entire front surface of the image. This layer not only further secures the image but also acts as a sealant, protecting it and integrating it seamlessly into the background. The matte finish of the gel medium will preserve the vintage aesthetic beautifully. Allow each tile to dry thoroughly.
Step 7: Apply a Soft Watercolor Wash
To soften the edges and blend the image into the gessoed background, apply a light, diluted wash of Martha Stewart Crafts Soft Gel Watercolor Acrylic Paint in ‘Beach Glass.’ Dip your brush in water first to thin the paint to a translucent consistency, then brush a light coat over the entire image and surrounding gesso, carefully avoiding the face of the Flower Girl. The aim is to create a subtle veil of color that unifies the background and adds a dreamlike quality without obscuring the main image. This technique is perfect for adding a touch of color while maintaining a delicate, vintage feel. Let it dry completely.
Step 8: Incorporate Textured Tea Bags
Tea bags are a fantastic, often overlooked mixed media element that adds incredible texture and an aged, organic dimension to your art. Using gel medium, adhere an empty, dried tea bag to approximately the bottom two-thirds of your design. I like to place mine under the face of the flower girl, allowing it to become part of her dress or the landscape she stands upon, but feel free to experiment with placement. The beauty of tea bags lies in their ability to wrinkle and crinkle as they dry, creating a wonderfully tactile surface. Don’t smooth them out too much; embrace the natural folds and creases for that ‘yummy texture.’ Once dry, you can gently tear or trim any excess tea bag material that extends beyond your chipboard tile.
Step 9: Dry Brush Twigs with White Acrylic
To integrate your natural elements and give them a slightly weathered, ethereal look, dry brush white acrylic paint onto your selected twigs. The dry brushing technique involves applying very little paint to your brush and lightly skimming it over the surface of the twig. This highlights the natural texture and contours of the wood without completely covering it, giving the twigs an almost frosted or aged appearance that ties in beautifully with the French Spring theme. If you find you’ve applied too much white, simply wipe it back off with a damp cloth or your finger until you achieve the desired effect.
Step 10: Arrange and Attach Natural Elements
This step is where your creative composition truly comes to life. Experiment with arranging your dried hydrangea flowers, moss, twigs, and any other natural elements you’ve gathered on each tile. Play around with different layouts until you find an arrangement that feels balanced, visually interesting, and harmonious with your Flower Girl image. Once you’re happy with the composition, use Tacky Glue to securely attach all your natural elements to the tiles. Tacky Glue provides a strong bond for three-dimensional objects. At this stage, I also placed tiny pearl beads onto the petals of the dried hydrangeas, adding a delicate sparkle, but you can choose to add these charming embellishments later if preferred.
Step 11: Stamp Meaningful Words
Adding stamped words can personalize your artwork and convey a deeper message. Select words that resonate with the feeling or narrative you wish to evoke with your art. For my French Spring Mixed Media Tiles, I chose “grow,” “dance,” and “play” to complement the whimsical nature of the flower girls. Using a Brilliance Cosmic Copper stamp pad, carefully stamp your chosen words onto a suitable area of each tile. The metallic sheen of the copper ink will add a subtle, elegant highlight without overpowering the other elements.
Step 12: Prepare the Canvas Backings with French Handwriting
Now, let’s turn our attention to the mini canvases that will serve as the elegant backings for our finished mixed media tiles. While my canvases had fairly deep sides, any mini canvas pack of 3-4 inch squares will work beautifully. The key here is to create a seamless, vintage-inspired wrap around each canvas using our French Handwriting printable.
Before proceeding, ensure you have already sealed your printed French Handwriting papers with hairspray or artist fixative (as mentioned in Step 5). This prevents the delicate ink from running when it comes into contact with the gel medium.
Carefully center one mini canvas on one of your French Handwriting printables. The goal is to wrap the paper around the canvas, covering both the top and the sides. Gently wrap the paper around the edges of the canvas and trim it to fit, leaving enough overlap to adhere securely. I prefer to tear my paper for a softer, more organic edge, but you can cut yours if you prefer precision. This step requires a bit of patience and precision: “measure twice, cut once!” You want to ensure your paper extends adequately to cover all sides without falling short.
Step 13: Tint and Crumple Your Handwriting Papers
To add another layer of visual interest and texture to your canvas backings, we’ll now tint and crumple the French Handwriting papers. Take one sheet and paint it with a light wash of blue (Beach Glass), another with salmon (Wild Salmon), and the third with yellow (Yellow Jacket). Use the Martha Stewart Soft Gel Watercolor Acrylic Paints, diluted with water for a translucent effect, similar to how we treated the flower girl images. The goal is to infuse a hint of spring color without completely obscuring the beautiful French script.
Once you’ve applied the paint, you’ll have three beautifully tinted sheets, each with its own soft hue.
While the painted papers are still slightly damp, gently crumple each one into a ball in your hand. This unique technique creates a wonderful, organic texture and adds an aged, antique feel to the paper, mimicking the look of well-loved, vintage documents. Carefully flatten them out afterward, ensuring they retain their delightful crinkles. Allow them to dry completely before proceeding. This step adds significant character to your canvas backgrounds.
Step 14: Adhere Handwriting Paper to the Canvas Top
Position one of your tinted, crumpled French Handwriting images squarely over the top of a mini canvas, ensuring it is perfectly centered. Gently crease the edges of the paper where it meets the canvas to mark your folding lines. Now, apply gel medium to the *top surface of the canvas ONLY*. Carefully reposition your handwriting image, aligning it precisely. The gel medium allows for a few minutes of repositioning, so take your time to ensure it’s centered. The paper is delicate due to the crumpling, so proceed with care. For now, do not apply gel medium to the top surface of the paper itself; simply smooth it down with a damp artist brush to remove any air bubbles and ensure good contact with the canvas.
Step 15: Secure Opposing Canvas Sides
Gluing the sides of the canvas requires patience and a systematic approach. Begin by folding down one of the longer, opposing edges of the handwriting paper and gently creasing it. Be extremely careful, as the paper can tear if it’s too wet from the gel medium. Spread a thin layer of gel medium onto *one side* of the canvas with your fingers, then carefully fold the edge of the handwriting image into place, pressing firmly. It’s crucial *not* to apply gel medium to the outside of the paper itself at this point; you’re only adhering the paper to the canvas’s side. Repeat this process on the opposite side of the canvas. Once both opposing sides are adhered, allow the canvas to dry completely while elevated off your work surface. I find placing an old paintbrush or scissors underneath the canvas works perfectly to prevent sticking and ensure proper airflow for drying.
Step 16: Miter and Secure the Remaining Canvas Sides
The remaining two sides, particularly the corners, are the most intricate part of wrapping your canvas, and it’s essential to tackle them one at a time, allowing each to dry fully before moving to the next. Trust me, patience here will save you headaches! First, fold one of the unglued sides down over the canvas. Now, gently bring the edge where the previously glued side meets this unglued side together, forming a neat little triangle, as depicted in the photo below. This step is key for creating crisp, mitered corners.
Once you have your triangle formed, carefully trim it off with scissors, cutting as close to the corner of the canvas as possible without cutting into the main body of your wrapped paper. This removes excess bulk and allows for a cleaner fold, as shown in the accompanying photos.
Then, after trimming, apply gel medium to this side of the canvas with your fingers and fold the remaining paper edge into place, gently pressing any excess corner paper over to create a smooth, clean edge. Allow this side to dry completely before repeating the entire process for the very last side. This sequential drying prevents the paper from shifting or tearing and ensures a professional finish for all your canvas backings.
Step 17: Embracing “OOPS” Moments and Adding Character
As you can see from my own experience with the salmon-colored paper, sometimes “oops” moments happen – especially when you’re rushing! My salmon paper tore in a few spots during the wrapping process. But here’s a valuable lesson in mixed media art: imperfections can often be embraced and even enhance the character of your piece. Once the paper was completely dry, I simply tapped a little of the salmon watercolor paint into the torn voids. The result? It looks perfectly fine! In fact, these minor imperfections added an unexpected layer of texture and authentic, aged character, making the piece even more unique. Don’t be afraid to let small “mistakes” become charming features in your art.
Step 18: Final Seal with Gel Medium
Once all your handwriting-covered canvases are completely dry and any “oops” moments have been artfully integrated, apply a thin, even layer of gel medium over the entire surface of each canvas, including the top and sides. This final coat acts as a protective sealant, shielding your delicate paper from dust, moisture, and UV damage, while also unifying the surface texture. It also provides a durable, matte finish that enhances the overall aesthetic. Allow this protective layer to dry thoroughly before proceeding.
Step 19: Attach Your Mixed Media Tiles to the Canvases
With both your decorative chipboard tiles and your wrapped canvas backings complete and fully dry, it’s time to bring them together. To create a captivating sense of depth and dimension, attach eight tiny foam glue squares around the edges on the back of each finished mixed media art image. These foam dots will elevate the tile slightly off the canvas surface, casting subtle shadows and making the artwork truly pop. Carefully position and attach each chipboard tile to its corresponding handwriting-covered canvas, ensuring it is perfectly centered. The result is a stunning collection of cohesive, three-dimensional artworks.
After the handwritten canvas is dry, attach the tiles to the canvas, centering them with care. These tiny artworks are now ready to be displayed and admired!
While this French Spring Mixed Media Tiles Tutorial involves several steps, you’ll find that the creative flow takes over once you get started, making the process both engaging and immensely satisfying. Each stage builds upon the last, transforming simple materials into richly textured and visually captivating pieces of art. I sincerely hope you’ve enjoyed playing with these beautiful images and techniques as much as I have!
Beyond traditional mixed media, I also share my passion for digital art through Photoshop Elements tutorials available on The Graphics Fairy Premium Membership site. While waiting for my physical art layers to dry, I often indulge in creating little digital paintings inspired by these very images. I find immense joy in blending both digital and traditional art techniques in my work, a fusion I’m particularly known for in my photographic artworks. It’s a wonderful way to explore creativity from every angle.
If you’re eager to discover more of my art, DIY projects, and whimsical artistic adventures, you can find me across various platforms. Explore Cre8tive Compass Magazine for a broader range of creative content, visit my newly launched site Cre8tiva, and immerse yourself in a vibrant collection of my digital art on Instagram. I love connecting with fellow artists and enthusiasts!
May joy be with you all in your creative pursuits,