2016 #18 Infused Leaves {by Darcy Wilkinson}

 2016 Topic 18: Autumn Leaves

Hi everyone, Darcy here with a project for this current topic of Autumn Leaves. I love Autumn, it is by far my favourite season, the colours are stunning, and there is nothing more satisfying that going for a walk and stomping through crunchy leaves. 

There is a really old cemetery near me filled with ancient trees,flowers,pine cones, squirrels, dog walkers etc. Considering its actual purpose it is a pleasant place to walk through;that was my first stop to collect some fallen leaves. 

All the leaves I collected were various shades of golden brown, and just started to curl at the edges, so I popped them into a press overnight just to flatten them. 

Then using a scraper I swiped on a little Buff, while this was still wet I added some sprinkles of Infusions. 

Then I spritzed with water, quite a lot, as I wanted the colours to run and mix. 

Next I dried the leaf as quickly as possible. This is leaf number 1, the infusion colours here were Are You Cerise, Orange County and Emerald Isle. 

Leaf number 2. The colours here were A Bit Jaded, Lemoncello and Sunset Beach

Leaf number 3, this time I used Golden Sands, Blackcurrant and A Bit Jaded, this was my favourite out of the three, so I decided to work with this one. 

A close up of leaf number 3. I love the blending of colours against the bits of original leaf showing through. 

I decided to work on a large piece of mixed media paper, and firstly I stamped the Iron railings from Urban Snapshots WI3 using Potting Soil Archival Ink, this is a nice deep rich brown. 

USWI 3

I also stamped the moth from Urban Snapshots N4

USN4

For my background I wanted to keep it relatively simple, so I just used one colour of Infusions. A Bit Jaded. I sprinkled the powder, spritzed with water , lightly and from high up, and then dried immediately. 

I stamped the text from Urban snapshots N1 and then cut the text into strips. 

USN1

The leaf was glued in place with Golden Matte Gel, and then the text attached on top. The leaf was not pressed down completely flat, I like that it has a little dimension. 

To finish off I added a border in dark brown using a Promarker and then attached the whole piece to a larger sheet of mixed media paper. 

Hope you liked that, it was fun working on real leaves, and definitely something that I would do again. Next time you are out walking why not collect some leaves and add them to your artwork. 
Darcy

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We would love to see how you interpret this Autumn Leaves topic by linking what you make to our 2016 Challenge #18: Autumn Leaves, on this page HERE.

All of our bloggers love to see your twist on their ideas,  particularly if you were inspired directly by their post. 

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Autumn Leaves link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, Oct 2nd 2016. The winner will be announced 2  hours later at 19:00.