Custom Watercolor Essential Oil Air Freshener

Have you hopped on board the essential oil train yet? It seems like everyone is enjoying the scent of pure plant fragrances these days and with so many ways to use essential oils, you can’t blame them! I recently found these awesome blank air fresheners and my mind practically exploded with the number of different ways you could customize them. I’m using watercolor markers in this tutorial but you could just as easily add paper punches, vinyl cut-outs, or stickers. Don’t be intimidated by the watercolor effect on my DIY air freshener. I’m here to show you a super easy way to achieve this effect even if you have zero experience with watercolor!

Supplies needed to make your own DIY air freshener:

• Abbey & Sullivan Unscented Heart Air Freshener Paper
• Essential Oils
• Spectrum Noir Aqua Markers
• See D’s Clear Acrylic Stamp Block
• Ranger Inkssentials Reusable Craft Sheet
• Stamp of Choice
• Baker’s Twine

Step 1. Use the Aqua markers to add color to your stamp of choice. Try to work quickly so that the ink doesn’t dry before stamping. Using only two colors really helped speed things up.

Step 2. Press stamp in place and lift to remove. Don’t worry too much if the the color isn’t dark enough, we’ll fix that in the next step!

Step 3. Once you’ve stamped the entire surface of the air freshener, use the other side of the marker to trace the outlines with a bit more ink. The fine point end is perfect for this!

Step 4. With all the outlines done, it’s time to turn your stamped image into watercolor! Working one color at a time, add a bit of ink to the acrylic stamp block. Dip a fine paintbrush into water and then dab into the ink on the stamp block. Apply to the stamped image where appropriate. You may want to do a few practice strokes first. The water is going to spread out like watercolor but it’s a fine balance between too watery and not enough.

Step 5. Continue adding water to your stamped image until you’re happy with the look. Allow to dry completely.

Step 6. Depending on the scent you want, add about 30 drops of essential oils to the back of the air freshener. I went with 10 drops each of lavender, peppermint, and sweet orange.

Step 7. If you removed the ribbon that came with the air freshener, add a piece of baker’s twine through the hole.

I absolutely love how gorgeous this custom DIY air freshener looks and smells hanging in my car. Hope you fun customizing one of your own!

Vanessa

Vanessa is a self proclaimed sleep deprived mother of two adorable boys and when she has a little time to spare, she makes things and posts about them on her craft blog, Tried & True. If she’s not cooking, sewing, gluing or making, she would probably go crazy. Join her on her crafty adventure at Tried & True.