Autumn Splendor Watercolour Leaves Background with Eloise

Hi everyone, Eloise back today featuring the new Autumn Splendor stamps and dies. I love this set so so much and I knew as soon as I saw this set that I had a specific technique in mind for this. I wanted to use my Distress Inks for stamping. Which we all know Distress Inks don't work well for stamping, but if you spritz them with a little water first, you get a decent impression that I knew would work well for these leaves, especially since leaves aren't perfect anyway. 

To begin my card today I first started off with the background. I used a piece of watercolour paper by Tim Holtz since the one he offers is a bright white and I knew a lot of white would be showing today. I then took the stamps from my Autumn Splendour stamp set and put them on different acrylic blocks, it just seemed easier this way. I then inked up the image with a colour of Distress Ink, spritzed a little water (probably from around 20cm (7-8 inches) away) and then stamped down on my cardstock. It takes a little practice to get to know how much water to get on your stamp, but I personally only like it a little wet and not dripping for my stamping - but you have to play around with it a little to get the feel for it right.

Once I stamped all the first layers and the were dry I moved on to the second layers. Did I tell you this is a layering stamp set? It's amazing right?! But it's not an ordinary layering set, the images in this have the half leaves so it works out great. So I just used a darker shade of the same colour in the Distress Ink line, lined it up as best I could (I didn't get it perfect in anyway) and then stamped down, using the same technique as before. I also then used the stem images in the set also and stamped them all down in a brown Distress Ink - I personally didn't bother spritzing for this step, since I didn't feel like it needed it. Once the leaves were done I moved onto the little berries image in the set and filled in some of the gaps, using the same technique as before as well.

Once I was done the background I moved onto my focal point. I used the Fishtail Banner Dies to create a vellum banner for the centre of my card. I then had also stamped some extra leaves onto some more watercolour cardstock and die cut them out. Before adhering them down to the vellum banner, I white heat embossed the 'thank you' sentiment from the set onto some black cardstock and then cut that into a banner shape. I foam mounted that onto the vellum banner and then used flat adhesive as well as dimensional adhesive to adhere all the extra leaves and berries coming out from the banner. Once they were all adhered down I flipped over the vellum banner and put adhesive where it wouldn't show and then stuck it down onto the background. I also used a piece of hemp natural twine to tie a bow at the top of my banner. I used a foam sheet behind my panel to adhere down to a kraft card base. For a finishing touch I used a little Wink of Stella in the clear to put on top of my die cut leaves.

That finished up my card for today, I hope you enjoyed and got inspired. Make sure you stop by the blog for the rest of the week to see how the ladies used this stamp set also! It's gonna be a great week. :) 

- Eloise

Sunny Studio Supplies Used: