Light and Dark Autumn Leaves

Wowzers! Can you believe it is almost December!?! What! Where did the time go? The leaves are falling here and the days are growing colder. I don't really enjoy Fall or Winter but there are 2 special holidays during this cold time that I very much look forward to, Thanksgiving and Christmas! I was out in my back yard today watching the leaves fall and the dogs play and grabbed a maple leaf. It was so textural and pretty, I decided to use it on my design. It also reminded me of having to rake leaves when I was younger. We had more than enough trees, but the fun part was when my Golden Retriever decided to play in the piles of leaves. Good memories!

When Daylight Savings happened on November 1st, I knew the light change would alter how I photographed my art so this design was inspired by the leaves and the light change. I started with my leaf and painted it with Gold modeling paste. Then cut out a square from some thick paperboard and added the gold paste to it as well. I used my Emperors Gold silks to go over the gold paste (note the bumps and textures-my Gold Silks isn't so silky anymore, it seems to be drying out) :( Then came a wash of Spiced Pumpkin Silks. After the paste and Silks was dry, I added some DecoArt Antiquing Cream Raw Umber to the edges. 

The leaf was popped up a bit with foam dots and a metal filigree charm was added. The A is self explanatory.  I was able to use my new Dymo labeler by adding the word "Autumn".

 While all of this was happening I had also cut out my base and applied the Silks Pumpkin to it as well. The crackle is a TH stamp and coffee archival ink. 

 Adding layers is my new challenge for myself, so I went about it. I used DecoArt crackle paste and the TH flourish stencil around the edge of the base. I did add some Distress Glitter to the wet paste. When it was dry I lightly sponged over it with coffee Archival ink. 

The gold tassel is just for fun! The Gold frame is from a local craft store and "painted" with Gold Alcohol Ink then washed with the Emperors Gold Silks after applying some DecoArt Crackle Glaze.  

I used my favorite glue, TomBow Multi to adhere the frame to the leaf piece. 

The frame looks rather vintage now! Awesome sauce! I do hope you aren't too cold wherever you are and you maybe had some fun while reading this post. Happy Holidays and Carpe Diem! ~Niki

I would love to share this wall hanging with these amazing challenges: 

Stamps and Stencils-Remember, Remember 

Frilly and Funkie-Let There Be Light

Mixed Media World #9-Anything Goes

Love to Create #22-Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes

Sweet Stamps November-Anything Goes

Sweet Stampin Challenge-Autumn Leaves

Falling Leaves

Hello! I started this project with a mad hatter theme in mind but switched it up to Fall to fit with the theme for Mixed Media Mojo-Fall/paste, where I am a new Design Team member. Thrilled is not even close to how happy I am to be with this team! Enjoy!

First I use gesso on my 8x10 canvas, then painted small strips of blue to show the "sky" between the wood panels I applied. 

The wood panels were made out of chipboard. I used a Mod Podge stencil and made my texture paste a light brown color. I use homemade texture paste made from baby powder, white acrylic paint and Elmer's glue. I then added a layer of gesso over that, dried it and then used Archival brown ink to add some color. 

I cut out plenty of leaves with my Cuttlebug using a Momenta die from Hobby Lobby. The pumpkin was from the Dollar Tree, I just cut it in half and painted it with Silks Spiced Pumpkin. The original pumpkin is the bottom one. 

I found these amazing top hats and bought every last one they had (4 total, lol!) because I knew I could do lots with it. I cut the hat in half and sprayed the hat with Smooch Spritz copper (not a fan of their bottles-too messy but the color is wonderful) and added a red stitching design, a leaf, and a gold band to fill it out. 

Next comes the box holding the leaves. I purchased this with the top hats. I applied Distress Crackle paint in Peeled Paint and Vintage Photo to the box and added  the words "Leaves are Falling". I embossed the words with black glittery embossing powder and edged the orange paper with brown Archival ink. Adding the straw (Dollar Tree) put the finishing touch on this box. 

Thanks for stopping by and leaving your lovely comments, it brightens my day! Carpe Diem!~€

I will be sharing this project with the following:

Rhedds Creative Spirit-Anything Goes. HERE

Artistic Stamper-Autumn Colors and use a rubber stamp HERE My stamp in Leaves are Falling that I embossed.

Inspiration Journal-Fall is in the Air HERE

Try It on Tuesdays-Use Your Stash HERE. I have had the leaf die cut in my stash but never thought I would use it. Thank goodness I had it and the orange construction paper is from an art class I took in High School, yes, I save everything art related and orange is not a favorite color for me. :)

Altered Eclectics-Anything Goes HERE

Mixed Media Mojo

Hey y'all! This is my first post as a Design Team member for Mixed Media Mojo! So exciting!

For our September Challenge we would like you to create a project that incorporates Fall and uses paste (modeling paste, embossing paste, etc). Get those creative hats on and enter HERE!

Here is a sneak peak at what I made. Enjoy! I will post more later. 

You can check out the other Design Team members projects by clicking on their names.

Maria

Amber

Tameko

Shery

Barb

Kim