An autumnal wreath (posted by Elaine)

It's my turn to follow Lesley's lovely Christmas themed wreath. I think I must have had some idea that I would be behind as usual when I decided not to make a Christmas wreath for our shared project! I love leaves and I know quite a few of my CSQ projects have featured them, so I decided to go for an autumn themed project this time.

 

In the run up to Christmas I saved a couple of pieces of thin brown kraft type card used in the middle of rolls of Christmas wrapping paper to keep them rigid. I knew they would come in handy for a craft project and this material formed the basis of nearly all the leaves on my wreath. First of all I die cut leaves using the Tim Holtz Tattered Leaf die.

I added colour with Distress Inks in Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade, Vintage Photo, Forest Moss and Aged Mahogany and then ran the leaves through the Big Shot with the matching Tattered Leaf embossing folder. I added highlights on the leaves with Treasure Gold gilding wax in Florentine and Onyxite.

Next I used the Penny Black Filigree Foliage cling stamps, stamping in Coffee Archival ink on 300 gsm smooth watercolour paper. I fussy cut the leaves and added colour with the same Distress Inks. Remind me not to use such thick paper in future if I plan to fussy cut so much - ouch!

Next I cut more leaves from the recycled brown card using a Prima Bigz Arbour die. I again added ink and gilding wax to highlight.

The base for my wreath was a wire ring. I don't think I had really thought through how I was going to attach my leaves to the ring, although I had wondered about wiring everything on.

I decided to add a touch of green to lift it all from too much dull brown and I used a lovely olivey green wired ribbon which I fixed into position with some florists wire.

From then on, I decided the best way to fix my leaves into place was to use red line tape around the wire and onto the back of each leaf, leaving one side of the backing tape in place. This gave me a base to stick other leaves onto and I worked to build up the layers.

 

My finishing touch was to add some twigs cut from chocolate brown card using a Memory Box die, some artificial berries and Chinese Lanterns and some little pine cones that had been lurking in my Christmas decoration box for about a hundred years!

 



This is the final wreath completed and I have to say I am delighted with it and pleased it has turned out to be a good alternative to all the Christmassy colours that have adorned our house in recent weeks. It has been hard taking a good pic of the whole wreath so here are a couple, anyway, you get the idea!

 

 

 

I really enjoyed making this wreath and now feel like I might try to make a similar project for each season in suitable colours and designs. This was a really enjoyable project so thank you to Judith for choosing it! We are looking forward to seeing what design you come up with in due course.

 

I am being cheeky using our shared blog to enter this project for the Christmas Leftovers challenge at Our Creative Corner. I rarely get time to enter challenges, but when I saw this one and realised that my developing wreath was largely made from the left overs of the rolls of wrapping paper and the little cones from my decorations box and has been assembled since Christmas, I thought it would qualify for inclusion!

 

Thank you for popping by. Your ongoing support for our rather neglected blog is so much appreciated.

 

Elaine