Good Wednesday morning and welcome to the CLASSroom. The fall season brings crisp, cool temperatures and a landscape palette of gorgeous colors. Living in Florida we do have slightly cooler temperatures in the fall but don’t experience the color changes. I have to celebrate the season by creating projects with the rich colors of fall. Last fall I presented a Leaves with PanPastel tutorial for In Touch. Today I’m going to show you another technique for coloring leaves with distress inks. I am using the Impression Obsession Leaves set paired with the Taylored Expressions Shade Tree Cutting Plate.
I was playing with leaf coloring last week and made an accidental discovery. My die cut leaf had gotten a little black spot on it so I tried to wipe it off with a clean baby wipe before starting to apply ink. It didn’t remove the black spot but the light touch of moisture from the wipe made applying and blending the inks so smoothly. It was much nicer than dealing with the paper misted with water. This is what I refer to as a happy accident.
I lightly dabbed (not rub) the leaf with a baby wipe to apply a light layer of moisture.
I used five inks to color my leaves and applied the colors in patches to create the variegation of fall colors. Peeled Paint, Spiced Marmalade, Rusty Hinge, Fired Brick and Wild Honey. I started with Peeled Paint.
I applied each color of ink with a Sofft Mini Applicator. Have I told you that these are one of my favorite go to tools for coloring? And no…..make up applicators do not work as well!
Apply Spiced Marmalade.
Apply Rusty Hinge.
Apply light touches of Fired Brick. The red is really pretty when blended in but can be overpowering if applied to heavy.
Finish the leaf by lightly applying Wild Honey over top of all four colors and blending them all together. You can see how sponging the lighter ink over all the darker colors smoothes out the distinct lines.
When I finished applying and blending the ink I placed the leaf face down on my Versa pad and dipped in clear embossing powder.
You can see how embossing brightens all the colors on the leaf.
I placed the leaf face down on my molding pad and formed it with the larger end of my stylus. I laughed as I took this picture because it seems I use these tools for every tutorial I do. Needless to say Susan’s Accessory Tool Kit has a prominent place on my work desk at all times. Thank you Susan!
I thought you would enjoy seeing my small pile of leaves. Aren’t they pretty! Truth be told I didn’t have a project plan when I started making the leaves. But recently I played with water coloring the Taylored Expressions Shade Tree with a water brush and reinkers but laid it aside for a future project. I decided the tree would be beautiful framed and embellished with the pretty fall leaves. Thus….I have no pictures of coloring the tree. Sorry! I applied embossing powder over the whole tree to make it shine and match the leaves.
I cut a frame using 5th largest die in the Nesting Card Template.
I laid the frame over top of the card base and used it as a guide to stamp the sentiment from the Shade Tree Sentiments set with Gathered Twigs ink.
I applied thin strips of mounting tape on the back of the frame and attached over top of the shade tree frame.
I applied another layer of mounting tape to the back of the tree frame, tree trunk and a few leaves and attached it to the card base. I wanted the tree limbs to be popped up for dimension.
I applied a piece of mounting tape to the back of each leaf and attached them in a cluster to the frame.
Here’s a closer view of the leaves. I am thinking of cutting and coloring up a large bunch of these leaves and creating a full sized wreath.
I hope my tutorial has given you inspiration to try making your own fall leaf project. I’ll look forward to seeing you next time.
