“The Four Seasons” has been a popular theme in art for decades. From traditional approaches showing trees during each season to landscapes to Alphonse Mucha figures, various subjects have been used to depict “The Four Seasons.”

In looking to do something different, it’s hard to come up with something interesting and not too close to what has already been done. Eventually, looking at printer tray crafts — and wanting to create one — led to a new approach: a collage much like the vignettes in printers’ tray crafts but held within frames.

And one of the best things about this project is that with all the mixed-media and scrapbooking options available, personalizing this is pretty much limitless.

For those interested, some photos follow of a few supplies used, and the remaining materials are listed at the bottom.

Since this project was started around the end of the year, it actually began with autumn.

The Background

On one side, the background was a piece of scrapbook paper from a paper pack (which I got years ago and held onto) and the right side was a piece of bristol board painted with an Americana acrylic paint in the color Desert Turquoise (a teal shade seemed like it could go well in some way with all the seasons).

For an autumn feel, a leaf was stenciled onto the teal portion on top of the acrylic paint with some Martha Stewart stencils from Michael’s and Faber-Castell Gelatos in the pastel variety.

Michael’s also had some cute tiny stamps from Art-C. One pack had a stamp with “live” on it, and with some metallic acrylic paint applied to it lightly, it made a nice addition.

Collage and Scrapbooking Pieces

Otherwise, it was mostly a matter of shopping for pieces for the collage and finding items that would work well together.

The Art-C “Everyday” Ephemera Collage Pack had great sayings printed on cardboard stock to use for this, and the chosen phrases for autumn were “Enjoy the little things,” “fun,” “smile” and “Make every moment count.”

(Incidentally, as a happy coincidence, the song “Smile” started playing on my Pandora while working on the “smile” part of the project.)

The cardboard sayings seemed a bit harsh on the background, so a mixture of the Desert Turquoise paint and FolkArt’s Metallic Antique Copper (which was also used for the frame) was mixed and washed over the pieces lightly as a unifying border.

Metal Embellishments: Keys and Keyholes

Tim Holtz had some Idea-ology pieces that were too cute to pass up: both keys and keyholes. These were fixed to the piece with e-6000 glue. It’s tough to see in the pictures, but the keys had words stamped on them, and the “heart” key seemed the right key for autumn, since the holidays start in autumn.

(The key does make the frame heavier on one side when you hang it. See here for correcting a tilted frame.)

To make the key stand out a bit, some white washi/masking tape was painted with the FolkArt Metallic Antique Copper and was just adhered to the background.

When put into the frame, the piece actually turned out really well!

The winter “Four Seasons” piece will follow shortly — and stay tuned for spring and summer!

 

Main materials used:
• Tim Holtz Idea-ology Keys
• Tim Holtz Idea-ology Keyholes
• Art-C Ephemera Collage Pack: “Everyday”
• Art-C Stamp: “Live”
• Americana Acrylic Paint: “Desert Turquoise”
• FolkArt Acrylic Paint: Metallic “Antique Copper”
• 4×6 frame from Michael’s