Using Ranger Mica Stain for Autumn Leaves

Good Morning,

I have debated on doing this post.  Before Susan did her FaceBook  Live on Susan's Garden Club 2, (Tri Fold Card & Another Autumn Leaf Technique),  I used her Autumn Foliage die set and colored the leaves with Ranger Mica Stains.  I guess great minds think alike - LOL.   Our techniques use the same products but since our techniques are different, I decided to go a head and post my tutorial.

This is card created using Maple Leaves

These are the colors of Mica Stain I used to color the maple leaves.  Once you start coloring the leaves, you find you want to experiment with some of the other colors too.

Susan used glossy photo paper in her video and I used watercolor paper.  Instead of coloring the paper first then die cutting, I die cut the leaves then colored them.  I found, since these stains have mica in them, they create a glossy finish on any paper, which eliminates having to brush on clear gloss glaze after they are shaped. 

 

I placed the die cut leaves on a non-stick sheet inside a Splat Box.  You can put them in any box to keep the spray from going all over other things on your workspace.  Having them on the non-stick sheet helps to reuse the extra spray.  Once I have sprayed all the colors on the leaves, I turned them over on the sheet and used a wet baby wipe to pick up the extra spray and rub it on the back of the leaves so both front and back are colored.  I used tweezers from Susan's Flower Tool Kit to turn over leaves.  You may want to use plastic gloves to keep your fingers clean.  Dab off any excess spray on front/back, with a baby wipe or paper towel, and place on clean non-stick mat to dry.  Once dry you can shape.  I like to use a mechanical pencil to lightly draw on veins then use tweezers to shape.  

If you haven't used Mica Spray yet to color autumn leaves, I suggest you watch Susan's video too and you can decide which technique you want to try.  

I wanted to include this picture to show how shiny the mica spray is using regular card stock.

I hope I have inspired you to create some beautiful autumn leaves.  Be sure to check out all the new dies in Susan's new Birds & Bees Garden Release.  I appreciate your support by using the links I have provided below for ordering the products you need.  

Pink Asters

Hello,

Today I decided to go through some of my older Spellbinders die sets to come up with a background for today's card.  I used the Romantic Rectangles and Shapabilities Floral Oval die sets.  

For the pretty flowers, I used Susan's new Aster and Autumn Foliage die sets from her new Birds & Bees Garden Release.  

The Asters were die cut using Susan's Specialty Cardstock and colored using OLO markers.  They were shaped using the tools in Susan's Flower Tool Kit.  To give the aster petals shape, they were lightly misted with water on the back then each petal was pinched around the tip of the tweezers.  Prills were added to the center once each flower was completed.  

For additional foliage, the leafy branch (acacia) in the Autumn Foliage die set was die cut using water color paper, colored and shaped then tucked behind the arrangement.

For the sentiment, I used one of the Spellbinder's BetterPress Sentiments.

It was fun going through all my older Spellbinders sets to come up with a different background for these pretty asters.

I have links below for Susan's new Birds & Bees Garden Release.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Garden Parasol with Pom Pom Dahlias

Hello Paper Crafters,

Today I have a card designed with Susan's new Parasol and Pom Pom Dahlias.  These die sets are in her new Birds & Bees Garden Release from Spellbinders.

I used the Spellbinders Raindrops 3-D embossing folder for the background.  

The Parasol was die cut using a piece of design paper from my stash. The handle and tip at top of parasol were die cut using mat silver metallic cardstock.   It was created just like Susan's shows us in her YouTube Video.   It has a small brace inside the parasol to help it from collasping when flowers are added.

The Pom Pom Dahlia die set was used to create all the flowers.  They were die cut using Susan's Specialty Cardstock then colored with markers. The flowers and leaves were shaped using the tools in Susan's Flower Tool Kit and assembled using Beacon Kids Choice Glue.   I used dimensional Pop-up glue dots to attach them.  

For the additional foliage I used Susan's Autumn Foliage die set.  The lemon verbena was die cut using watercolor paper, colored and shaped.  Purple berries were added plus one little lady bug.  Susan has included her little lady bug in many different die sets. 

I have included links below for Susan's new Birds & Bees Garden Release plus other products used.  Thank you for visiting my blog.   

Gathering Autumn Birch Leaves

Good Morning.  I hope you have a nice weekend.  In our area, the leaves have changed colors and the scenery everywhere is beautiful.

If you follow me, you know I have been busy creating a lot of leaves using Susan's Autumn Foliage die set in her new Birds & Bees Garden Release from Spellbinders.   I have used the Birch Leaf for this card.   I have a tutorial on my blog at this LINK.

For this card I was trying to do something very different from my usual card.  I decided to try and create an Autumn scene.  What do you think?  Did it come together ok?

This is a 5x7 inch card.  I cut a piece of white cardstock slightly smaller and lightly sponged two shades of blue ink on the upper 3/4 of the card.  Two shades of green were sponged on the lower portion.   For the bare tree branches, I used Susan's  Winter Bough and Evergreen Shrubs die set.  

I filled the bucket, from Susan's Geranium & Antique Bucket die set,  with Birch Leaves and a few Acacia branches.  On the side I created a small pumpkin using small egg dies from an old Easter die set.  A couple of sprigs of grass were added behind the pumpkin.  I used an old grass die from my stash.

A stamp from one of Susan's Quote's stamp set was gold embossed, fussy cut, sponged and attached with dimensional tape.

Tutorial for coloring Maple Leaves using ink pads and blending brushes

Hello Paper Crafters,

This is the third tutorial for coloring leaves in Susan's new Autumn Foliage die set.  This tutorial shows how I color Maple Leaves.  My favorite way to color leaves is to using Blending Brushes and dye ink pads to blend a different colors on each leaf.  

Die cut the leaves using watercolor paper.  Use the Leaf Tool that is in Susan's Flower Tool Kit and trace over all the score lines in the dye cut leaf.  For Maple Leaves, I like to start off by coloring the whole leaf using bright yellow ink on the front and back.

Use an orange ink to brush around the edges of the leaves.

Here I brushed on a  Crimson Red to blend over some of the orange ink.

To make the edges of the leaves darker, a brown ink was brushed around the edges. and lightly over the whole leaf.

- - - - - - - - - - - - 

Here is how I colored the second set of leaves I had die cut.

 I used bright yellow ink to just color small portions of each leaf.

Next I brushed on green ink leaving a small portion of the leaf uncolored.

To fill in the rest of the leaf, bright red ink was brushed on.   (Half the leaves here have red ink brushed on.)

I forgot to take a picture here, but I brushed mahogany ink over edges of leaves.  

After the leaves were colored, I used a mechanical pencil and lightly drew over the scored lines.

As with the other leaves, some dark spots were stamp on some of the leaves with  brown ink.

The leaves were lightly misted, on the back, with water and shaped using the tweezers from Susan's Flower Tool Kit.  Each point on these leaves were shaped.  It's a little extra work to shape the leaves, but it really makes them look very realistic. To finish the leaves, Clear Crystal Glaze was brushed over the top of each leaf.

I hope these tutorials give you inspiration for coloring autumn leaves.  You don't need to use the exact color ink pads I used or even use as many colors, but I'm sure you will have fun once you start creating your autumn leaves.  

I have Susan's new release linked below.  If you haven't ordered your dies yet, I would appreciate your support by clicking on the links below.  Thank you.

SELMA

Tutorial for coloring Oak Leaves using ink pads and brushes

Hello Paper Crafters,

This is the second tutorial for coloring leaves in Susan's new Autumn Foliage die set.  This tutorial shows how I color Birch Leaves.  Susan demonstrates on her FaceBook Live Videos how she colors the leaves using OLO markers.  I prefer to color the leaves using ink pads and blending brushes.  When using bushes, it is easy to blend several different colors.

To get started, die cut a lot of the leaves out of watercolor paper.  Use the Leaf Tool in Susan's Flower Tool Kit and go over score lines in the die cut leaves.  

Below are a series of pictures showing the ink pads I used for each step of coloring the leaves.  I like blending a variety of colors.  

Be sure to over lap and blend the colors as you color.

Ater coloring the leaves on the front and back, use a fine line pen to draw over the score lines on the leaves.  

If you want, you can add dark spots onto the leaves that you often see on leaves that have fallen to the ground.  I use a stamp and dark brown ink and add a few spots on each leaf.

Once you are finished coloring the leaves, lightly spritz the backside of the leaves and shape them using the Tweezers from Susan's Flower Tool Kit.  Once they are shaped, I like to add a Clear Crystal Glaze over the top.  This not only gives a little shine to the leaves, it also helps to hold the shape.

I will have one more tutorial for coloring Maple Leaves.

Susan's new Birds & Bees Garden release plus other products I use are linked below.

Tutorial for coloring Birch Leaves using ink pads and brushes

Hello Paper Crafters,

Susan has a new Autumn Foliage die set in her Birds & Butterfly Garden release.  She has several FaceBook Live videos and YouTube videos on how to color autumn leaves using OLO markers.  I have used OLO markers many times to color my leaves  but I also like to color them using ink pads and brushes to blend colors.  Below I have a tutorial on the process coloring using ink pads and brushes.  

I am posting three seperate blog post, each showing a different leaf in this release - Birch Leaves, Oak Leaves and Maple Leaves.  

Die cut the Birch Leaves using Susan's Autumn Foliage die set.  Use the leaf tool from her Flower Tool Kit to go over the scored lines.   I work on the Waffle Flower Stencil Mat and Blending Brushes.   For me using ink pads and brushes is a quicker method of coloring.  I start by pulling out a lot of different ink pads that I feel will be great autumn colors.  I like to blend a variety of colors, which will be shown in these tutorials, but you can use fewer colors if you want.  I have used a lot of Altenew Ink Pads.  I wanted to let you know that Altenew has a new style ink pad for their inks.  I have linked similar colors of ink pads below.  

Brush Altenew Honey Drizzle ink, or any bright yellow ink,  on both sides of the die cut birch leaves.  (You can see all the leaves I have die cut in the tray at the top of this picture.)  I always like to color a lot more leaves than I need for the project I am working on.  

Bush Altenew Autumn  Blaze (bright orange) ink on lower portion of leaf.  You only need to do this on front of leaf.

Brush Altenew Paper Bag Ink over orange ink and slightly above the orange and around edges.

I like to add dark spots on the leaves.  I have a Stampin' Up! Itty Bitty Background stamp I have had for many years that I use to stamp Altenew Expresso (dark brown) ink on each leaf.  (This stamp set is no longer available from Stampin' Up! but can be found on eBay.) You can splatter ink onto the leaf for the same effect.  

To ephasize the veins on the leaf, use a fine line pen and lightly draw the line over the scored lines.  I like to use a grey pen but you can use green or any color you want for the veins. 

To make the leaves realistic, you need to shape them.  Spritz the back of the leaves with a light mist of water and shape using the tweezers in the Flower Tool Kit.  

Shaped Leaves ready for a project.

I will be posting another blog post showing how to color Maple and Oak Leaves.