Lovely Leaves for the Paper Players # 172

I was so excited to see the challenge from the Paper Players today, a clean and simple card using leaves.  Well, I’ve been all over the leave thing this fall so this was right in my wheelhouse. Here’s my card and I’ve got a bunch to tell you about it.

And the challenge that inspired it…..

but the real inspiration was this tree I found in my neighborhood a few weeks ago.

About my card
1.  I was enthralled by the mix of green, purple, red and even a little coral, all in one beautiful tree.  The shape reminded me so of the single tree stamp in Lovely as a Tree stamp set.  I knew one day this fall I would be making an attempt to recreate it.  Today was that day.  I used my Aqua Painter, my best friend this season for watercoloring techniques, and started filling in the tree with various colors I saw in the leaves after embossing with early espresso. I always start with the lightest color first, this time it was coral. Add a little garden green, some cherry cobbler, rich razzleberry and even some elegant eggplant. The tree trunk has crumb cake, chocolate chip, early espresso, with some always artichoke along the grass.    A little sahara sand around the edges for depth.

2.  The Bigz Autumn Leaf die was used to cut out the two maple leaves.  One with a crushed curry dsp, the other with a cherry cobbler dsp.  I spritz them with water, and crumpled them up, unfolded them and used sponge daubers to color them in.  The crushed curry leaf has old olive in the center, with calypso coral and cajun craze over top.  Early Espresso finishes over all and around the edges.  The cherry cobbler leaf has cherry cobbler over all, then rich razzleberry and elegant eggplant over the top.  Did you notice the brad, it also has leaves imprinted in it. The give thanks sentiment comes from the Best of Autumn stamp set.

3.  Lastly, the background paper is from Natural Composition specialty paper, inked with Rich Razzleberry over the top and embossed with the Square Lattice embossing folder.

Well I hope you like my card today,  Sorry for all my rambling.

Thanks for stopping by.
Lynn

What I used:
Stamps: lovely as a tree, best of autumn, paper: early espresso, rich razzleberry, natural white, ink: early espresso, always artichoke, rich razzleberry, cherry cobbler, cajun craze, old olive, garden green, calypso coral, elegant eggplant, chocolate chip, soft suede, crumb cake, Accessories, antique brads, early espresso embossing powder, versamark, bigz die autume leaves. square lattice embossing folder, distressing tool.