Tutorial - Watercolor Wonder Crayon Wall Art Collage

I have received many requests to share instructions with you on the Watercolor Wonder Crayon Wall Art Collage piece.  We had this class on Tuesday and Wednesday nights this week and here are a couple of my customers finished projects:

BJ's Collage

Mari's Collage

And here is my new collage:

My Collage

Tutorial:
Materials - 
Fine Mist Spray Bottles - one for water and one with mixture of rubbing alcohol , ink refill and Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint
12 x 12 Basic Black Card stock
10 Manila tags
9 - 2.75" x 2.75" Whisper White Card Stock
9 - 2.5" x 2.5" Basic Black Card Stock
Stampin' Up! Stencils: Elegant Trio and Mostly Vintage
Stampin' Up! Stamps - I used a variety of Background Stamps and vintage and nature stamps and punches.
Tombow Glue
Stampin' Dimensionals
Dotto
Bone Folder
Stamping Sponges
Stampin' Up! Classic Ink & Markers
Adhesive remover
Watercolor Wonder Crayons
Paper Trimmer
Heavy cardboard strips 1"x12" and 7/8"x12" - 3 of each size.  I used the cardboard from DSP packs.

Directions:
Crumble three of the tags in your hands creating lots of creases.  Choose a watercolor wonder crayon for each tag and run the edge of your crayon across the creases. Mist with water and set aside to dry.
The next two tags I creased a pattern of lines in the tag and went over the crease with a bone folder.  Color in the patterns created by the lines with different colored crayons.  See picture of tags below for examples of these tags.
The next two tags you will use stencils on.  First tag, place the stencil on your tag, it is okay if it overlaps, just choose which part of the stencil you want to use.  Trace the inside edge of the stencil with a crayon and try to cut into the crayon with the stencil so that you leave crayon on the stencil itself as well as on the tag.  When finished, lift off the stencil and spray the tag lightly with water and set aside to dry.  Now spray the stencil on the side facing you with water and turn damp stencil over on a new tag and press the stencil onto the tag.  The left over crayon on the stencil will make a cool looking image on the tag, then set aside tag to dry.  See the bottom right corner purple example on my collage pictured above for an example of the sprayed stencil look.
The rest of the tags you will want to pick out stamps to color with your watercolor wonder crayons, mist the stamp and then stamp on the tag.  The new stamp set "Nature Walk" has a flower that worked great for this technique.
After all ten tags are finished, then spray them with the mixture of rubbing alcohol, ink refill and Shimmer Paint.  Let tags dry completely.  We had this class in two sessions so that the tags could dry over night.

Next, you will stamp your tags with background stamps and other images.  You can use a variety of ink colors and markers to color your tag images.  After you are happy with your tags, you will need to cut nine squares out of the tags measuring 2.25" x 2.25".  Sponge the edges of the squares after you have cut them.    We even popped up images with dimensionals after we were done sponging to add more interest.  If you noticed we even left some of the tag holes in some of the squares.

Tags before cutting and not all stamping done.

Building your wall collage:

Glue the black squares in the middle of the white squares.  Using dotto, place the three white 1" cardboard strips around three edges of the Basic Black 12 x 12 Card Stock.  Place your first white square in the upper left hand corner formed by the cardboard strips and glue(I used Dotto and eventually it becomes permanent).  Now using Dotto to attach one of the 7/8" strips to the right edge of the first white square you have glued down, making sure that it is straight up and down on page.  Now glue another white square in the next area created by the 7/8" strip next to the first square. Now using dotto to attach one of the 7/8" strips to the right edge of the second white square you have glued down, making sure that it is straight up and down on page. Now glue another white square in the next area created by the 7/8" strip next to the second square.  You should now have three squares lined up across the top of your page.
To create your second row, using Dotto to attach one of the 7/8" strips to the bottom edge of the first row of white squares you have glued down, making sure that it is straight across on the page. Now glue the next row of three white squares.  To create your third row, remove the 7/8" strip from between the first row and second row across and place it under the second row and then glue the last three white squares down.  Remove all of the cardboard strips and remove the spots of Dotto with Adhesive Remover.
Now glue your tag squares to the black squares and you are finished.

Hope you all have as much fun as we did making this project.  My ladies have asked to do this one again they liked it so much.  I know it looks a little dark in the pics, but is very beautiful up close.