PCCCS161 -- Hello Autumn!

Yes, the calendar insists that it's still summer but the temperatures around here have dropped sufficiently to make me believe that Autumn is very close.  Where is our Indian summer?  I'm not sure I'm ready to give up sandals, shorts and short sleeves quite yet.  Yes, the turning leaves are gorgeous.  I'd be a fool to deny their beauty.  But I'm still wishing for summer to continue a while yet.

The sketch for our Paper Craft Crew Challenge lent itself perfectly to an idea I had of a background of falling leaves combined with the tree from that wonderful Ronald McDonald House stamp set, Sprinkles of Life.

For my background, I first took a piece of Watercolour Paper and sprayed it well with water before dipping it onto a window sheet upon which I had mixed drops of So Saffron, Tangelo Twist and Delightful Dijon.  The results were very muted but it took away the white, which is what I wanted.  Then, after the Watercolour Paper had completely dried, I stamped various leaves from the Vintage Leaves set across the paper in every direction using the Basic Grey Archival ink.  The fact that the ink is waterproof appealed to me since I planned to use quite a bit more water and ink to colour the leaves.  When that had completely dried, I stamped more leaves in the empty areas, overlapping onto the coloured leaves, using Smoky Slate and Sahara Sand inks.  The results are very subtle but it really adds so much more dimension.

For my centre oval, I used the new Heavy Weight Whisper White and stamped the tree from the Sprinkles of Life set using the Basic Grey Archival ink again.  Then I coloured it using my Tip Top Taupe Stampin' Marker.  I used the little leaves image from the Sheltering Tree stamp set to stamp the leaves in the tree and on the ground using a variety of different inks:  Old Olive, Delightful Dijon, Cajun Craze and Tangelo Twist.  As an added touch, I stamped the rake image from that stamp set using the Basic Grey Archival ink as well.

I love the final results.  It really does look like Autumn, doesn't it?  I guess that's what I'll be seeing more and more of now that our temperatures have dropped.  

I hope you'll join us at the Paper Craft Crew Challenge to check out the rest of the Design Team cards.  I look forward to seeing your card linked up to our page.