Autumn Colours

Hi everyone!

     I have been so looking forward to autumn! I know some people will think I am crazy hoping for cooler weather, and yes, sitting in the sun is very pleasant - but there is something so very wonderful about frosty days, the gorgeous changing colours of leaves, the smell of bonfires....If you haven't already guessed by my other posts recently, if I had to choose my favourite time of year it would be Autumn...

     Last year I arrived here in blogland at the end of Autumn - sadly missing out on most of the Autumn season - and now I get to make tags with leaves, use the wonderful seasonal colours of red, brown and orange....

        So I am so happy to present the new challenge at Fashionable Stamping Challenges is -

AUTUMN COLOURS

                       

                   


    
   * Before I talk about how I made this I just wanted to tell you about a change I made to my blog - Many people 'Pin' my photos to Pinterest - Thank you so much for doing this if you have - It makes me very proud to see that! Now I have added a 'Pin' to each photo to make it even easier to 'Pin it'! Just hover the cursor over the photo and you will see a Pin icon - just click it and pin.


   Now onto this creation -  I decided to make a scaled down version of the collage I did a few months ago. I loved making it but decided to make a simpler one...this time using Fresco paints instead of Distress Inks....then I got totally carried away and got involved in embellishments, words...and frame making!

     I got out some Fresco paints - Chocolate Pudding, French Roast, Pumpkin Soup, Smoked Paprika, Hey Pesto and Blood Orange - Sounds like items on a menu doesn't it?!

     I needed nine 2" squares so I used a square punch so that all pieces were totally the same size. This square punch was in two sizes so that you can mat the squares for scrap booking - so I made a few smaller squares as well. I applied the colours with a sponge to blend them.

      I stamped images onto each card. I used script, birds, music, alphabet, cogs, a clock, hedgerow....then I arranged the squares onto a piece of thick cardboard.

      I decided to embellish each square -

 A pen nib, that had been coloured with ginger alcohol ink, 

 A few tiny metal watch cogs

.......and a rusty metal heart. 

The rest of the squares were decorated with words from Tim Holtz Chit-Chat stickers that had been inked with Distress Inks.

     For the centerpiece I used one of my favourite leaf stamps and dabbed some Blood Orange and Pumpkin Soup paint on it and stamped onto card.

I blended the paints a little more after stamping as I wasn't too happy with the image, but at least I had the outline - I cut around the stamp and dabbed the edges with French Roast paint. I then stamped a script stamp onto the leaf in Potted Soil Archival ink and added a chit-chat sticker that had been dabbed with Distress Ink.

     I then decided I should make a frame....

      I cut some strips of balsa wood to size and stuck them together.  I applied texture paste through the damask stencil and left to dry. I then covered it with a coat of Gesso - Balsa wood doesn't like paint very much and can sometimes react to it so a primer is best painted on first as a base for the other paint. When that was dry I covered the frame with Old Gold Fresco Paint and dabbed randomly with French Roast Fresco paint - which is my favourite paint for any distressing/shabby/ageing effects. Although this effect works very well - the Old Gold Fresco Paint blends beautifully with French Roast - I decided to add, as a finishing touch, some White Fire Treasure Gold to bring out the embossed texture.

       
          Hope you like it! Please hop over to Fashionable Stamping Challenges and see what my wonderful teammates have made to inspire you this Autumn! Please get those gorgeous colours ready and join us - You could win $20 to spend at Flonzcraft or be parading on the catwalk as one of our Spotlights!

              Thanks so much for being here! See you all soon!

        

I would like to enter this for the following challenges -

Creative Moments - Anything goes/Frame it