The Autumn Collection

Hello all, after a spooky old time of it round here lately - so glad you enjoyed all my tiny haunted houses! - I'm here with a touch of autumn colour today...

When I saw the new Fall Foliage Thinlits, it was pretty much love at first sight, and I'm afraid I splurged.  This is the trouble with working... when I can't spend time at the craft table - I spend money on crafty goodies instead!

Anyway, there are no regrets about this buy (who am I kidding? there are no regrets about any of them... just about the lack of time to play with them!).

I went all out for the fall rainbow this first time out, some wrinkle-free distress and some crackle, so it's a good fit for Anything Mixed Media/Creative at Love to Create.









And for once there's no stamping at all on this one, perfect for the current Frilly and Funkie challenge Stamps Be Gone, as well as plenty of autumn colours for Mixed Media World's Anything Goes with Autumn Colours.

You'll see from the dripping ivy that I had to dart out in between rain showers to get some photos - if the sun comes out I might try for a few new ones.  I think this one would glow in the sunshine.






I started with a bunch of tags and a pile of autumnal colours of Distress Ink and set to with the wrinkle-free distressing.   Not sure I can give you a comprehensive list, but all the usual autumn suspects are there...  I just enjoyed getting inky.

By the time I'd die-cut three of the tags, I had an abundance of leaves to play with, so one of the remaining tags got pressed into service as a background.







The top tag is cut from a Regions Beyond paper and run through a couple of times with the Harlequin Mixed Media thinlit.  After a while, I realised the grey tones of the paper didn't look quite right with the bright leaves...

... so I decided I needed to deepen them with some Gathered Twigs and Ground Espresso.  That way it gave me more of a wood colour to serve as the base for the leaves.










As well as the leaves, I decided to add some crackled harlequins to the mix.  I manoeuvred the die into the fragments of tags left over from cutting the leaves to get myself just a few additional diamonds in different colours.


I slotted those into place (not necessarily the right place, but that just gives an extra hint of colour behind) and dotted Rock Candy over some of them too.








The leaves are all coated with Rock Candy Crackle Paint...













... some fairly thickly so you get a good crackle...















... some with just a thin coat so there's barely any crackle...











... but you do get the fabulous intensification of the colour that comes with the glossy coating.














A Photobooth photo... she's the collector of all these autumnal treasures...













A WordBand to celebrate her collections... always good to Add Some Metal - especially when that's what they're playing with at Try It On Tuesday.












Both that and the gears have had Teakwood and Ginger alcohol inks applied... 














And some Small Talk to capture her excitement about them, and we're done.












I hope you like this autumn rainbow collection.  Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you'll be able to join me here at Words and Pictures on Saturday for a very exciting post. 

Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains, a torch flung to the trees.
From American Family by Faith Baldwin






I'd like to enter this in the following:
With no stamps, it fits right in with Stamps Be Gone over at Frilly and Funkie
Over at Mixed Media World they think that Anything Goes with Autumn Colours
And at Love to Create it's Anything Mixed Media/Creative Goes
Finally, at Try It On Tuesday they would like us to Add Some Metal

Can you tell I've got a bit of time to play some challenges again!?