Encore Post - The time of the falling leaves

Encore Posts

Projects which made their first appearances elsewhere for Design Team duties or Guest Designer opportunities, but which only had a sneak peek here, are being gathered together in the pages of my virtual scrapbook while I'm away.

As always, the Encore Posts are formatted differently from the regular ones, so that you can easily spot them.  Please don't feel that you have to comment all over again!

Hello all.  We're in the middle of a collection of autumnal Encore Posts.  (Check out Thrice Blasted, Thrice Infected if you missed it.)  I've been charging up and down the country for work - Cheltenham, Bath, Stratford upon Avon in the last ten days or so - so the craft desk is still waiting patiently for me to get back to play.

This is the first of two Destination Inspiration posts, created for A Vintage Journey - this one was posted there back in October of last year, 2017.  This somewhat cobbled together hanging ended up being one of my favourite creations of the year... go figure!  Here's what I wrote back then...

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Hello all!  It's Alison here, ready to share what I've created with this month's travel bag contents.  In case you need a reminder, here's what we packed this month:

Substrate - Corrugated Cardboard

Colour - Any Fall Colours You Fancy

Product - Crackle Paint/Paste

Technique - Die-cutting

And here's what arrived at my Destination Inspiration...

... a rustic hanging full of texture, autumnal colour and dimensional embellishing.

I started with some corrugated cardboard torn from some packaging, and roughly applied both some gesso and some DecoArt crackle paint with a palette knife.

I let that dry and crackle thoroughly before applying some colour to it with Distress Sprays and Infusions powders.

While it was drying, I took a piece of A4 kraft card and spritzed it with some more Distress Sprays - Vintage Photo, Rusty Hinge and Gathered Twigs are certainly all involved, and maybe some others.  I sprayed and flicked some water droplets at it as I dried it to get a nice mottled effect.

From that kraft card, I cut all my leaves - some with the Layered Leaf and some with the small Movers and Shapers Mini Tattered Leaves.

All of them then went back through the BigShot inside the embossing folder which comes as part of the Texture Fades Layered Leaf set, giving them that textured veining.

I grabbed some pinecones to add to my autumn gatherings, and started playing around with the arrangement on the corrugated cardboard panel.

As you can see, I decided it needed another layer, so I inserted some book page tags, carved from one of my altered book projects ages ago.  I'm still working my way through the pile of leftover pieces.

With all these autumn leaves, it wasn't long before I reached for my Autumn Edition quote stamps (PaperArtsy EAB04).

I stamped the quote on some separate cardstock, tore it out and inked it with Distress Inks (Antique Linen and Vintage Photo mainly), and positioned it in the centre of the panel.  It then became much simpler to work out the composition of the other elements around it.

Some berries add extra autumnal colour to the clusters of pinecones.

Natural fibres create extra movement and catch the light.

A good inking of the edges of the corrugated cardboard gives it an extra weathered look.

You can still just about see those book pages in the layers of falling leaves...

... and all that crackle is still tucked away underneath.

There's some rusty wire at the top to hang the panel up by...

... and plenty of white spatter... 

... gives the whole thing a dusting of extra life...

... like a frosty autumnal morning.

This was one of those projects which I really didn't think much about - it just seemed to take shape on the table in front of me, and I love the end result.

I hope you like it too.

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So there you have it.  It's really just a collection of lovely objects arranged to please the eye... assemblage is a wonderful thing!  Thanks so much for stopping by.  I'm hoping I'll get some catching up done over the weekend - I'm looking forward to seeing what you've been up to lately.  Happy crafting all!

The last dead leaves of fall crackled underfoot, winter-crisp.
From American Gods by Neil Gaiman

I'd like to share this in the Simply Neutrals gathering over at Apple Apricot - I hope it's neutral enough!