Chalk-Ah-Lot Leaves challenge card (#20)

The leaves are so beautiful right now in our little part of the world. They are gorgeous shades of red, orange, yellow, brown, and still some green. It makes for breathtaking drives on country roads. That's what inspired me to make this card for the new Leaves challenge at Chalk-Ah-Lot Cafe this fortnight.

I started by running a piece of heavier cardstock through my Cuttlebug using the TH Tattered Leaves die. I set aside the die cut leaves because all I needed was the piece with the leaf shaped holes. This was placed like a stencil over a piece of regular weight cardstock. Completing one leaf at a time, Buzz N Magic paint was pounced through the open leaves a section at a time. While the paint was still wet, either crimson, jade or sunshine SNP powdered chalk was pounced into the sections, overlapping colours slightly to blend. The Buzz N Magic paint gives a delicious sheen to the chalk and allows the vibrancy to show through. While the colours are still soft, they are not washed out at all.

Once all of the leaves were chalked and the paint had dried, a black pen was used to sketchily doodle outlines and veins on the leaves. This provides definition to them and lends a hand-drawn or painterly feel to the card front. A Stamp N Plus Scrap N stamp, Mountain Ash, was inked with a pale brown colour and randomly stamped in the white spaces between leaves. Using Distress ink, a splatter dot stamp was also randomly stamped over the negative space and on the leaves to create more texture and interest.

Two mats of textured paper, one orange and one brown, were cut to fit the chalked leaf piece. Before assembly, all edges were inked with Distress inks. A green and white dotted grosgrain ribbon was added to the left side and a large green button was threaded with baker's twine and adhered on top of the ribbon. A computer generated message was printed on a die cut tag with inked and faux stitched edges. Faux stitching was also added to the white border of the card..

That's it...that's all. It was fun to play with the SNP chalks to create this card. I love the variety of looks that can be achieved with the powdered chalks. The experiments continue! For more inspiration, take a peek at the Chalk-Ah-Lot blog to see what other leafy delights the DT created for this challenge. Once you do, I'll bet you'll want to play along :) Think of all the other stencils you could make with those dies and punches you own. This is such a versatile chalking technique.

I am entering ths in the Allsorts Challenge  #175  Autumn Leaves and Trees

Thanks for visiting.
Life is good; so is art.

Bonnie