If you’ve been on Pinterest lately, perhaps you’ve noticed that the “Dark Academia” or "Dark Cottage-core" aesthetic is very on-trend. Dark hued studies with books lining the walls, vintage fountain pens, artwork of botanical and insect studies, dried herbs hanging from the window corner, preserved butterflies and maybe just a touch of the whimsical spilling open from a favorite fantasy book. 

That is what this latest Prima Marketing collection, Nature Academia, is all about. And it has awoken Goth Adrienne from her enchanted slumber early! She usually only comes out to play around Halloween! 

I wanted to focus on the moulds and florals in this collection, as well as some of the fussy cut elements. I started by prepping the oval shaped canvas and moulds first. For the canvas, I applied Finnabair’s Modeling Paste through the Secret Letters Stencil.

As that dried, I then painted the moulds from the collection, as well as some of the Redesign with Prima Herbology Moulds and a Finnabair Baroque Frames Mould with Black Gesso. The only exception was the beetle, which I painted with Avocado Green Liquid Acrylic. And once the modeling paste on the canvas was dry, I painted the entire canvas with Black Gesso.

To match the copper metallic accents in the flowers from this collection, I chose to apply the Rich Copper Metallique Wax to the highlights on the moulds (minus the beetle—I have special plans for him). 

Then I used a sponge to dab a little bit of the Gliding Glue on Baroque Frame Mould and the beetle. I applied the Copper Metallic Flakes to the frame and beetle. To bring down the shine and grunge it up a bit, I applied watered down black gesso over the beetle and frame. This botanist’s study is vintage! 

Once the moulds were prepped, I then worked on fussy cutting out some elements from the 12x12 paper pad, including some mushrooms, a bee, a butterfly and leaves. I also traced the canvas onto a piece of the aqua crackled background paper in the collection and cut it out. I tore it diagonally in half. On one side, I added a tear and rolled the sides of the paper along the tear down.

I also pulled a journaling card, cutting it to fit inside the frame mould. I used the back side of the journaling card—the pattern reminds me of an old tapestry or book illumination. I glued it to the back of the mould.

To start layering, I began with applying the torn paper to the bottom of the canvas. Then I popped the frame up by placing it on top of layers of cardboard box. The Herbology moulds were layered to the right of the frame and a mushroom mould from the collection was placed on the left side of the frame along with one more of the Herbology moulds. 

I glued the larger mushroom cluster to the bottom of the frame mould and the beetle in the frame above the cluster. Before adding the mould, I attached the fussy cut mushroom cluster to the right side of the frame. 

Then I layered in a bunch of different flowers from the collection, focusing in on the neutrals, coppers and sage greens. I placed them all toward the bottom of the canvas, as if the frame was growing up out of the flowers and leaves. 

I tucked in the fussy cut ephemera, plus some leaves I die cut from the collection paper. The butterfly got tucked in as well as the snail mould, some small floral moulds from the Herbology set, and a bottle from the chipboard sticker set. 

To the mushroom moulds on top of the frame, I added a smaller green flower. On top of it, I added a banner chipboard sticker and a fussy cut bee. Under the flower, I tucked in a fountain pen from one of the ephemera packs. 

For a finishing touch, I added some crystals from the collection as well as some memory hardware pearls. I hope that you feel inspired by this new collection and decide to make something with it when it becomes available in stores. The metallic flowers are insanely beautiful and now I’m itching to dive into a good fantasy book! 

New collections usually hit Prima Marketing's retail site within 2 weeks of the reveal (use code adrienne15 for 15% off your order). Many retailers are already receiving the collection so you'll be able to find it soon at your local scrapbooking stores. Scrapbook.com already has the collection in stock so be sure to check out the Prima Marketing products over on their site! 

Until next time, happy crafting!

Adrienne

Shop the Supplies:

Scrapbook.com, Prima Marketing, Redesign with Prima and Amazon

I am an affiliate with Scrapbook.com and Amazon. When you shop the links below, I receive a small commission from the affiliate, at no additional cost to you. This helps me balance the costs of the time and love I put into my projects and blog so I can continue to share my ideas with you for FREE. If you shop the links, thank you! I greatly appreciate it. 

Use code adrienne15 for 15% off your order on the Prima Marketing retail site.

Below are products that I used for this project.