Every leaf speaks

Hello all, and a warm welcome to Words and Pictures on this chilly day (well, it's chilly where I am, you may be more fortunate).

I'm getting there with catching up with the Funkie Junkie's 12 Tags of Christmas, sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique, but I've skipped one - this is number 5.  I'll come back to number 4 soon.

So far I've taken the inspiration provided each week and run in the other direction from Christmas... and today's is no exception.  I've discovered I love autumnal crafting, and I'm jolly well hanging onto it for as long as possible!

Yup... autumn leaves it is.  And plenty of them, in all sorts of ways.

I've taken inspiration from Linda's original in lots of ways.  There's the music manuscript background; and I've done some embossing on it (leaves not snowflakes); I have  a four-letter word as my focal point; I've used some metal filigree embellishments; there's script on my die-cut shapes; and the original starting colour of Vintage Photo is also the same in both tags.








But the big difference, of course is that hers is Christmas and mine is Autumn.  


And, yes, I've used the American term "fall" because I also wanted to reference the leaves tumbling all over the tag, falling to the floor in that final burst of fiery colour before they turn to mulch (love that word!).

I'm actually really pleased with the lettering here.  It's the Idea-ology Alpha Parts from Tim Holtz, and they start out as black plastic.  I've added drops of alcohol ink in Gold and Rust until they mixed to my satisfaction.  


I love what a variety of looks you can achieve with these letters - I've used the same Random set a couple of times recently with slightly different recipes, and love each different result.






I treated the metal filigree the same way.  I got these corner pieces very cheaply on ebay, but they've got a bright white enamel finish, so that had to be changed!  


Again, I added various alcohol ink drops (think black was in there somewhere with these too) until I liked the look.  I love the variegated autumnal shades I've ended up with.

The embossing in the background is done with my much-loved and oft-used Artistic Outpost leaf stamp from the Old Grist Mill set.  (By next autumn I hope to have saved up to get Tim Holtz's Falling Leaves set - unbelievably gorgeous, and then I won't have to have just one leaf shape the whole time, lovely as it may be!)


After embossing, I went over the whole background with Tea Dye, Vintage Photo and - towards the edges - Gathered Twigs.  And near the end of the making I stippled on some Transparent Iron Oxide paint to fire up the colours overall.

The edging was done with Gold acrylic paint, dabbed on with a crumpled piece of paper towel to get the texture on it.  


It was slightly too bright a gold, so that got a blending of Gathered Twigs over it as well, and a touch of the Iron Oxide right at the edges.

For the leaves, I stamped a script stamp onto some light brown cardstock, and ran it through the BigShot with the TH Autumn Gatherings die.  


So music in the background and words in the leaves - combining my favourite things again with my new favourite thing (crafting, if you hadn't worked it out)...  And words in the leaves, you see - "Every leaf speaks..."












Each leaf then had to be edged with Vintage Photo to give it some more definition, and they got a collective spritz of Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls Mist (pretty hard to get them all to stay in one place as you spritz them and then blow hot air at them!).    And then there was the sticking down...

The string at the top is from a big ball of coated twine, with a brass/bronzey metallic sheen.  I can't remember now where I picked it up, but it cost peanuts and there's loads of it, so expect to see more of that!


So that's number 5... I've got 4 and 6 to go, and then I'll be up to date. What's the betting I can get it done before number 7 tips up on Monday?!




Thanks so much for stopping by today... and why do come and play along.  Linda's tags are so amazing, and kick off so many ideas and possibilities.  And you don't have to play every single one (though I think you need the full set to be in the running for the prize), and you've got until 17th December to get it done - piece of cake!!

I'm entering this in the following:
Tag 5 of the Funkie Junkie's 12 Tags of Christmas
Simon Says Stamp are playing in the Autumn Leaves this week
Artful Times would like to see Orange, Brown and White (there's just about some white left thanks to the embossed leaves!
Twisted Tuesday are playing Anything But a Card, with a twist of orange 

Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree.
Emily Brontë
And because I'm not actually much of a Brontë fan (not Emily, anyway, or Charlotte much... I like Anne - just to be difficult), I'll give you some others too.  It's just that the speaking leaves were too good to miss as a post title...
Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all.
Stanley Horowitz
And this is the fire I'm after in this tag:
A woodland in full color is awesome as a forest fire, in magnitude at least, but a single tree is like a dancing tongue of flame to warm the heart.
Hal Borland