Layered Bauble Wreath

There are at least a dozen things on my to do list the next few days...but I couldn't stop thinking about the final project for the Creative Circle class with Esté MacLeod.  

So between my chores and Christmas prep I finished project #5....a layered bauble wreath. It's a bit of a watercolor explosion of color....but I just couldn't help myself.

The very first task at the beginning of this mini course was to paint circles. 

Lots of circles....and they became the foundation for our baubles for this final wreath project. I painted several pages....but this is the one I used for the project.  And late last night I started decorating them....turning them into baubles. 

After doing a little watercolor embellishment....I used gold and white paint pens for the details.  I knew I would be cutting them out so I didn't worry at all about staying inside the lines.

We were encouraged to use numbers again as a starting place for our decorating.....but I just stuck with lines and circles and I'm feeling a bit guilty about that.

Esté suggested we use a discarded watercolor piece for the background...or the leaves in my case.....and it was a game changer.  It was fascinating to watch her turn a discarded paint project into her wreath base in her video.

I had done this rainbow grid a while back...then never did anything with it. (This happens a lot....by the way.) It was colorful....and seemed to coordinate with my baubles.  Was it possible for this to become leaves???

I had already started to wash over it in green before I thought to take a photo.  I was skeptical....but I kept going adding in several shades of green in the white spaces.

I cut out as many leaves as I could from the piece....added some gold embellishments and covered all the edges.  The leaves ended up being quite magical.....I'm now a believer in the process and I loved how the different colors all came through. I did cut them in half to make them easier to tuck in...and it also gave me twice as many to work with.

I even used all the little cut-offs from the leaves and made little berries to tuck in. 

I got everything cut out....embellished and edged in gold and last night.....staying up way too late for me.  

This was my colorful little pile....all ready for my layered wreath.

After a productive chore morning I took some time this afternoon to assemble the wreath. I cut a circle base out of heavy cardboard and just started layering and gluing....no plan....just an image in my head and Esté's lesson as my inspiration.  

I used little cardboard scraps as spacers to lift some of the baubles.....I wanted to be able to tuck the leaves in and around and this left spaces for that. I used soft gel medium to glue...it's thicker and just a dab will do.

The wreath was hard to photograph.  There are lots of gold accents that are hard to see....and colors always look better in person.

But if I held it at just the right angle I could capture the light. It's all about the light.

This little mini class was just what I needed this holiday season....and I'm appreciative to Esté for offering it for free. It got me playing with shapes... numbers and paint....and reminded me how important it is to make time for art.  Even when I'm busy.