The Colours of Autumn

Hello! I've been very inspired lately by a number of challenges. There are some gorgeous mood boards around at the moment! The ones that influenced this creation are Our Mixed Media Moods, Art Playground,  Scrapki-Wyzwaniowo and CSI- Color, Stories, Inspiration. I have never entered four challenges with one project before but these all feature autumn leaves or an autumn theme!

Firstly, here's my project. It could be classified as a layout or art journal page but it will go into my album and fits on 12 x 12 paper so I'll call it a layout! I had so much fun making this.

I've included many of my favourite techniques on this project. Black, white and book paper is a favourite combo of mine. In this case it's black, cream and book paper as the book paper I used is fairly old and has a yellowed look about it - awesome! The messy stitching is something I use a lot - I love it! I also used some of my favourite products such as the punch along the right hand side and the Tinby Designs Colour Crush on the background.

I used a metallic copper paint through a stencil and matched it with a funky copper-coloured fibre.

I wanted to highlight the leaves on the Dusty Attic chipboard so I found a punch that had tiny little pieces that are roughly leaf-shaped. I punched these shapes out of book paper and added these to the chipboard. It was fiddly work but I love the result.

I love messy stitching!

The photo was taken in a gorgeous forest in Italy where the leaves were just starting to turn a stunning yellow. Coming from Australia, we don't see many forests with autumn leaves so I was pretty excited by this!

Two of the challenges I'm entering are intertwined. The challenge at Art Playground is to use some colours from their mood board and to be inspired by 'My Muse'. Here's the mood board:

I used a range of the olive colours on my background as well as the more coppery colour. The colours look metallic here so I used metallic copper paint. I am inspired by a number of amazing scrappers and artists and one of these is the incredible DeeDee Catron. I love her quirky style and the way she creates pieces that look stunning without being cluttered. She is definitely 'My Muse'.

DeeDee helps run Our Mixed Media Moods which also has a challenge this month. After watching DeeDee's video I rushed straight to the scrap room and created this piece. Here's the mood board:

I was inspired by the photo in the bottom right corner, as well as the text on the aged-looking pieces in the top left photo. DeeDee's creation for this challenge is awesome! You can check it out here.

The challenge up at Scrapki-Wyzwaniowo is to use leaves. Easy!

I have autumn leaves in my photo, book paper leaves on my chipboard and some plain chipboard leaves in the corner of my photo under the title.

Last, but certainly not least, the other challenge that was sitting on my desk as I made this was CSI. Again, it's an autumn- themed mood board.

I clues I used are:
Evidence:
Book paper
Leaves and branches
Fall-themed elements
Twine
Something woven (the copper fibre)
Distressing

Testimony:
Document something about autumn
The Scheme:
Khaki and flax yellow (on the background)
Dark, dark brown (on the branches)

Phew - that was a long post! I hope you can jump on board and join in some of the challenges too!


Happy scrappin'!

Heather

Our Mixed Media Moods Challenge

Hullo there!

This post is a bit of an unplanned extra one as I decided on the spur of the moment to join in the fun over at Our Mixed Media Moods. I'm a big fan of Dee Dee Catron's work and she and her friend, Jenn Engle, have started up a new mixed media challenge. You can find the challenge here.

I made an art journal page.

I adore art journaling in old books and this one is perfect - the pages are lovely and thick and take wet media well. I love utilising the text and the aged look of the paper in books like these. The only downside is that they don't sit particularly flat and photos of these pages tend to look like things are crooked or misaligned but I've got to take the bad with the good!

Here's the challenge board:

As much as I love earthy colours, I rarely use earthy greens in my work so this was a sticking point for me. But whats the point of participating in a challenge if it isn't challenging? I decided to run with the tree and nature idea, layering different leaf and branch concepts in bands across the page. My title says, "Nurture the trees: they are the lungs of our planet". I loved the chevrons on the mood board and made these, and the strong black and white contrast, a feature of my page.

The branches in the top band were made using a leftover Dusty Attic chippie waste as a stencil and using a Copic marker through it. The chevrons were easy - it's just washi tape.

The green section was made by mixing two colours of Tinby Designs Colour Crush with gesso and applying them over a mask. 

I stuck paper reinforcements in a line across the text and painted black Dusty Attic paint over the top then removed the reinforcements to let the text peek through. I also punched leaves from the text paper and layered them onto the brown section which is made up of paints, inks, sprays and stamping. Did I mention I love experimenting with book paper text? Lol! I also incorporated a few of the vintage typewriter key alphas from the mood board.

I sure hope you can pop over to Our Mixed Media Moods for a look!


Happy scrappin'!


Heather