Fall Leaf Wreath

Hello and Happy Fall!

I love this time of the year-the cool weather, the crunchy leaves, and the stunning colors!  I was feeling inspired by the changing leaves after going for a walk with my daughter last week so I decided to do a "just for me" project!

I pulled out my Big shot, some colored cardstock (early espresso, more mustard (retired), pear pizzaz and crumb cake), champagne glimmer paper, brushed gold cardstock, and my autumn accents bigz die.  My daughter and I cut sheet after sheet of leaves.  I decided I wanted to turn them into a fall wreath.  I started by turning the leaves into ones that were a little more realistic looking. 

Here was how I went about transforming the leaves from this

                                                                      to this   :

1.  Start with a plain leaf.  I set it on my piercing mat and used the stylus from my Simply Scored tool to add the veining in the leaf.  I started with the center one and added the side veins next.

 

2.  I added some sponging with my sponge daubers.  It brightened them up, added extra color and brought out the veins.  Each leaf I seemed to sponged differently.

3.  I stamped some water spots on the leaf using both the French Foliage set (retired) and the Gorgeous Grunge set.  You can see the spots better on the maple leaf.  Then I folded/bent the leaves along the score marks to give the leaves some dimension and "life".

 

4.  My last step with the leaves was to add some homemade shimmer mist for some sparkle and shine.

 

You could use these leaves on any project-cards, gift boxes, 3D items, and scrapbook pages.  I choose to make a wreath.

 

I got a foam wreath and hot glued my leaves on, working around the wreath in the same direction.  Because of the folds, they had lots of dimension and easily covered the spaces.  I added a tulle bow with a large button to finish it off.

 

Here is my completed project!

Here it is hanging in my porch with a banner I created a couple of years ago (sorry, the lighting isn't great in the pictures!)

 

 

I had so much fun creating this wreath and look forward to hanging it up every fall now!

Thanks for stopping by!