Windswept Autumn Tree

Hi friends! We had a lovely autumn weekend here. It is Monday and of course time for another Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. This week, we have an autumn theme. I am looking forward to seeing everyone's projects.

I was in the mood for a layout and wanted to use a photo from last weekend's forest outing. Anton's hair is a little wild here, he has had a haircut now. I wanted to make it look like they were sitting in a pile of leaves underneath a beautiful tree. The bikes are there because Anton had his bike and cycled around a lake, while Leo and I walked. I took a few step photos. 

I was SO happy to see Prima's new watercolour papers. I have a thing for watercolour paper and, as you might know, it is probably my favourite surface to work on. When I work in the 12 x 12 format, I usually cut down a larger sheet of watercolour paper, but that won't be necessary anymore since Prima now offers 12 x 12. There are a bunch of other great sizes too, and I really like the quality and feel of the paper. I started out by misting most of the paper with Antique Linen and added some Gathered Twigs where I planned for the trunk of the tree to be.

I used StencilGirl's beautiful Windswept Tree stencil by Cathy Taylor and placed it on the paper. The paper was misted with Distress Spray Stains, creating a colour explosion. A little bit of mist went underneath the stencil, but I like it because it adds to the organic flowing look.

I didn't want to waste the yummy colours that were on the stencil, so I misted the stencil with water and pressed another sheet of watercolour paper on top to get this great looking tree. I will use this some other time.

When the first layer of mists was dry, I added a tiny bit of Tarnished Brass, for some gold shimmer. Prima's Graphite Sand Texture Paste was smeared through a bike stencil with a palette knife. I love this paste, you can see another example of it in my Poppy Mixed Media Panel.

Mist a piece of watercolour paper, aiming for a speckled effect.

When dry, die cut with the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Maple Trio set. I placed a black Sizzix Inksheets Transfer Film in between the paper and the die when cutting. Since these dies have a stitching pattern, that meant that that pattern was transferred to the paper. For other examples using the Inksheets, check out this art journal tutorial as well as this tutorial. The Inksheets turn wafer-thin dies and embossing folders into stamps, which is pretty cool and a great way of getting more out of your dies.

The clouds were die cut from cream paper and from gold Deco Sheet and layered together. I stamped the background here and there with a lovely script stamp from Paper Artsy designed by Sara Naumann.

Here you can better see the very cool shimmery effect of the Graphite Paste.

The title was die cut with the Simon Says Stamp Alphabet Block die, and completed with Label Letters. It translates 'Fall outing'. I used my Crop-a-dile to add two dots over the 'o', for the Swedish letter ‘ö’.

I used two Paper Artsy stamp sets by Sara Naumann, Eclectica 18 and Eclectica 15, which have really nice sentiment, background and image stamps.

This sentiment was stamped in two sections, instead of all at once.

I also die cut the Stitched Maple Leaves from gold Deco Sheet, and layered together with some twigs and a piece of Linen Ribbon.

I liked the combination of the speckled and gold leaves.

And a Framed Alpha Part piece, because the layout needed a little more black. The 'happy fall' sentiment comes from Hero Arts Layering Fall Trees set.

I hope you will join us in our autumn challenge, as always, one random participant wins a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

If you want to, follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff daily. 

If you use instagram add #sssmchallenge to your challenge entry uploads, so that we can see them on there too.

Thank you so much for watching! I will be back tomorrow with some Tim Holtz christmas inspiration.

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

StencilGirl WINDSWEPT TREE 9x12	Simon Says Stamp ALPHABET BLOCKS	Simon Says Stamp CHEVRON CLOUDS	Paper Artsy SARA NAUMANN ECLECTICA3 18	Paper Artsy SARA NAUMANN ECLECTICA3 15
Hero Arts COLOR LAYERING FALL TREES	Prima Flowers 12 X 12 WATERCOLOR PAPER PAD 847753	Tim Holtz Idea-ology DECO SHEETS	Ranger MIXED MEDIA CARDSTOCK	Ranger Archival Ink Pad JET BLACK
Tim Holtz BARN DOOR	Tim Holtz Distress Spray Stain ANTIQUE LINEN	Tim Holtz SPICED MARMALADE	Tim Holtz SCATTERED STRAW	Tim Holtz Distress Spray Stain PEELED PAINT
Tim Holtz Distress Spray Stain GATHERED TWIGS	Tim Holtz SALTY OCEAN	Tim Holtz Distress Spray Stain TARNISHED BRASS	Tim Holtz Distress Spray Stain TUMBLED GLASS	Prima Flowers GRAPHITE SAND TEXTURE PASTE
Tim Holtz Alpha Parts FRAMED	Tim Holtz LABEL LETTERS	Sizzix BIG SHOT MACHINE Gray And White	Sizzix MAGNETIC PLATFORM	Sizzix BLACK SHEETS Transfer Film Inksheets
Sizzix STANDARD TRANSFER PAD Inksheets	EK Success 1/8	Ranger Inkssentials Non Stick CRAFT SHEET	Dina Wakley Ranger PALETTE KNIFE	We R Memory Keepers CROPADILE
Ranger Inkssentials GLOSSY ACCENTS	Tim Holtz DISTRESS SPRAYER Ranger

InLinkz.com

And:
Stencil: StencilGirl: Bicycle Borders