Welcome aboard for this month's challenge tutorial post! It's Sara Emily (
sarascloset) here to take you step by step through the creation of my inspiration piece for this month's current challenge,
Autumn Splendor.
With the glorious colours of fall it would be oh so nice to see some falling leaves, pumpkins, acorns or any other favourite images that brings fall to mind. Just remember to create your project in our preferred styles of vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk.
I was a little short on time this month, so I decided to use up a few things I already had on my desk. These two strips of kraft card stock embossed with Tim Holtz Lumber 3D embossing folder worked perfectly for a base. I simply painted them using Ground Espresso paint using the foam top, which leaves the paint mostly on the raised portions.
I glued the pieces to a second card to make the base layer and trimmed to the size I wanted. I blended with Ground Espresso ink.
To make the focal panel, I used the old iron off embossing technique and Tim Holtz Nature's Wonders leaf stamps.
Using my stamp platform, I inked the sumac leave cluster with embossing ink and stamped repeatedly for each leaf to get really good coverage.
I covered my card with white embossing powder, shook off the excess and heated just until melted. If you heat too much, the lift technique will not work nearly as well.
Next, blend with chosen Distress Oxide inks, and wipe from the embossed areas.
Fold a piece of plain kraft paper over the completed panel to cover it entirely. I have a roll of kraft wrapping paper that works perfectly for this; it's a little on the heavier side. Turn iron on high and iron over the kraft. I keep a travel iron just for crafting, but there are craft irons on the market, or you could use your regular iron.
Here is a photo showing the ink removed from the blue panel to the kraft. I may just use that kraft on another project.
I inked a maple leaf stamp from the same set with two Archival inks and stamped on the panel.
I used the script from Tim's Entomology set and Forest Moss ink for some background stamping. The ink is supposed to be resisted by the little bit of embossing that is left on the panel. I think I may have ironed too hard, or perhaps I didn't heat the powder enough, because that didn't happen in this case. I inked only portions of the unmounted stamp, and then 'rolled' the stamp over the panel, so the stamping is random.
To finish the panel, I blended with Forest Moss ink, heavier on the edges, working lighter toward the center. I don't have a process photo of it, but then I splashed the panel with a little water and dried with my heat tool to get some variation in color. I also splattered on watery Ground Espresso ink with my splatter brush.
Now onto the leaves. I die cut a couple of the leaves using Tim's Skeleton Leaves from Classic Kraft Stock and sanded them fairly heavily.
I added color back in using Distress crayons and heated to melt the color into the card stock.
I stamped scrap vanilla card with both Ground Espresso Distress ink and Potting Soil Archival inks using a few more of the leaves from Nature's Wonders. I colored them with a water brush and various Distress inks and fussy cut.
To give the leaves dimension, I wet the backs, and shaped them with my flower shaping tools. These consist of a foam pad insert from an costume jewelry box and a swizzle stick. LOL!
For a finishing touch to my card, I painted this sweet pumpkin charm from
The Funkie Junkie Boutique. The 'wood' panel was adhered to a card blank cut from Distress Heavy Stock and the blue panel was adhered using adhesive foam to pop it up a bit.
The leaf cluster was assembled, along with dyed seam binding and some flowers from my stash. I thought it needed just a bit of white in the arrangement, and I found the embossed and crackled Laurel Impresslit I had rejected from another project.
Thank you so much for joining me for this tutorial. You still have plenty of time to join in our Autumn Splendor challenge and you can get all the details
HERE along with some fabulous inspiration from the Creative Guides. You have until November 2 to link your project. We look forward to seeing what you create! And please stop back next week, when Autumn will be back with another card tutorial to tempt you with.
Happy Crafting!
Sara Emily