Fall Foliage

Morning all!

When my lovely order from the Harvest Fest release arrived, the first thing I wanted to try was the Round About Fall Foliage die.

I think this is a really versatile die - it looks great in (contrasting) solid cardstock colours, you can snip the little elements off to nestle into other projects and behind sentiments, or you can just colour in the elements on the frame, which was top of my list.

I cut the die twice from watercolour paper, then used various Distress Watercolor Pencils (including several colours in Set 3) to lay down colour and went back in with more colour layers and then regular pencil for some extra detail.

The new Herringbone Parquet die flew out of stock, but there's another way to create a woodgrain background with an older set from The Greetery: the Shiplap Builder dies.

This die cuts 6 planks in one pass (if you leave the dies fused together). I cut them from watercolour paper and then coloured them with a few shades of Distress Oxide before spritzing with water to get that aged look.

Once they were dry, I glued them onto a piece of brown cardstock with the planks arranged like floor boards. The design I used features all 6 planks cut with that one pass. You'd probably be able to fill the whole card front with just 12 planks if arranged this way.

I used rustic cream cardstock for the backdrop to my card, it's already speckled with flecks, but I just had to give it some extra splatter with metallic copper paint. I also painted the frame in copper too.

Finally, I needed a sentiment that would fit inside the frame but wouldn't conceal the woodgrain background strip. This is when a close-cut sentiment comes in handy. I grabbed the separate sentiment dies that coordinate with the Wildwood stamps and cut them all in one pass, so I could stamp them together and decide which one fit the space best.

I can't wait to play with that Wildwood set properly, it just needs to be a lot cooler in my craft space first! 

Who knows, that might be my next project...

Until next time, happy crafting!