Autumn ~ ePlay challenge

Hi everyone! It's time for our October ePlay Challenge to begin at eclectic Paperie. The theme this month is Fall or Autumn. Easy peasy since Fall is my favourite season of the year. I love the freshness of the temperature, the gorgeous changing leaves, pulling out my heavier sweaters...all of it.

I decided to have a play with my TH Tattered Leaves die since it hadn't seen the light of day in a while. I began by cutting the leaves out of watercolour paper. I wanted to add my favourite leaf which does not happen to beincluded on this die, the maple leaf. After all, I am Canadian, eh! I printed an outline of the maple leaf onto copy paper and then cut it out with a watercolour layer underneath. That way there were no inky lines on either side of it so if I messed up (and I did) I could just flip it over. I spritzed some Watermelon, Guacamole, and Glorious Art Anthology Colorations Sprays onto my craft mat with a little water and dragged my leaves through the puddles, layering until I was happy.

To intensify and vary the colours in some places, I edged and applied Walnut Stain, Vintage Photo, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door, Peeled Paint, and Scattered Straw Distress ink paying particular attention to the edges of the leaves. The Mini Ink Blending Tool was awesome for getting into those tiny curves. The new Steampunk Gelatos were also used, spreading the colour with a dry finger...just had to try them out plus the metallic catches the light beautifully.

Once the leaves were coloured and arranged on the black matboard background, I was able to see where and in what direction eye stamps could be added. Two came from Wendy Vecchi's An Eye for Art set, and the other two came from a stamp from my stash. The Fall lettering is also an alpha set from long ago. Most of the leaves were adhered flat to the background with Beacon 3-in-1 glue. Three of the leaves were popped up on foam tape, with the Fall one getting a double layer to pop it up even further.

The center embellishment is a layering of clock/watch faces. The bottom layer is a cardstock one from a collage sheet which I fussy cut and edged with Black Big Brush pen. The next layer is a black metal clock face from my stash, and the top layer is a clock button. All layers have foam tape on the back for added dimension. The sentiment was computer generated and printed onto kraft cardstock, edged with Vintage Photo Distress ink, and adhered to the background with Scor Tape. To finish off the piece and add a little more texture to the background, steniclling was added by pouncing the Emboss It Dabber through TCW's Mini Netting stencil and then clear embossing it.

I love how this turned out. The fall colours contrasting with the black background, eye stamps, clocks, and a great quote..these are a few of my favourite things...LOL. be sure to check out Debbie's wonderful project on the eP blog. She is our fabulous hostess this month for October's ePlay Challenge. Others on the DT will be adding their links below her post so there will be lots of inspiration to encourage you to play along. Hope to see you there.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Here are links to the products I used from the eclectic Paperie store:

Distress Ink Pad - Walnut Stain	Distress Ink Pad - Vintage Photo	Distress Ink Pad - Barn Door	Distress Ink Pad - Peeled Paint
Distress Ink Pad - Scattered Straw	Art Anthology - Coloration Color Spray - Watermelon	Art Anthology - Coloration Color Spray - Guacamole	Art Anthology - Coloration Color Spray - Glorious
Ranger - Emboss It Dabber	Ranger Super Fine Embossing Powder - Clear	The Crafter′s Workshop - 6x6 stencil - Netting	Faber-Castell - Gelatos - Steampunk
BEACON: 3-In-1 Advanced Craft Glue	Scor Tape -1/4"wide x 27 yds long (double sided)	Ranger - Mini Ink Blending Tool