Autumn Leaves

It is time for me to share a new project for IndigoBlu and this time I have created an autumn card.  I have gone for a couple of drives into the country over the past couple of week and these colours are exactly what I saw on the trees - breathtaking.

I started with some Bazzill card stock for the blank and then created a background panel.  I used watercolour card stock and inked it all over with Scattered Straw and Dried Marigold Distress Ink.  I used a stippling brush and a Folk Art stencil called Leaf Variety to add a number of IndigoBlu Matte acrylic paints - Postbox Red, Burning Bonfire, Hunter Green, Hot Cocoa and Lemon Meringue.  I then lightly stippled directly onto the background between the leaves with some Miss Moneypenny Metallic acrylic paint.

I took another sheet of watercolour card stock and randomly painted it all over with Postbox Red, Burning Bonfire, Hot Cocoa and Hunter Green acrylic paints to get a master board.

Using some Coffee Archival Ink, I stamped leaves from the Live, Laugh, Love set onto the master board that I created.

I fussy cut the leaves and added some Miss Moneypenny metallic paint to the edges with a natural sea sponge.  If you find you need a bit more control to get it just on the edges, you can roll up a little bit of paper towelling and that works too.

Next I used a die set from Spellbinders and Tammy Tutterow called Shabby Posies to cut petals from some stiff gauze fabric that I picked up on a visit to a wholesale place in Fancy Gap, Virginia.

I thinned some Burning Bonfire matte paint with quite a bit of water, dipped the petals in to coat them and then scrunched them up and let them dry.  Once dry, I opened them up again being careful not to tear them.  I stacked the petals and joined them together by sewing them in the centre and fluffed them up to make my flower.

Next I used Coffee Archival Ink to stamp the sentiment from the Live, Laugh, Love set onto a scrap of green card stock from Recollections.  I cut the corners off to create a tag and punched a hole to which I added an Avery reinforcement that was coloured with some Crushed Olive Distress Ink.

Before I adhered the background to the blank I added a wide strip of organza ribbon topped with a strip of grosgrain ribbon, both from my stash.  Next I added the leaves, then the flower and finally the sentiment, which I hung on the card with some burlap string.

I hope you will pop over to the IndigoBlu blog because I am sharing this post with some of my team mates on the International Design Team and you will want to check out the wonderful projects they created.