Autumn Leaves

Over the last week, my husband and I have had way more drama than we needed in our lives.  Igor just came home after 8 days in the hospital due to renal failure brought on by a medication he was taking for arthritis pain.  Then to help us celebrate what will soon be a full recovery, Hurricane Sandy came over to play.  She did not play nicely.  The damage is unspeakable and much of it irreparable.  Mercifully, other than a short power failure and a few leaks, our street was spared the mighty devastation that is spread out over the rest of NJ and everywhere else in her horrific path.  Therefore, I decided that a Thank You card pulled from my stash was an appropriate choice for Thursday’s post . . .

While I love using natural materials on cards, they break down over time and one’s artwork eventually looks like Shabby Chic without the Chic.  Enter a wonderful product called “Dragonfly”, a Japanese tissue ‘paper’ made from rayon.  One source is here.   Dragonfly is whisper-thin, sheer, and almost disappears when glued to the surface of your project.  It has a few fiber swirls here and there for added interest and so it was perfect for this project.

After drying and pressing the leaves in my Microfleur flower press, I covered two of them with black acrylic paint for added contrast.  I brushed the entire piece with PPV glue and laid down the Dragonfly tissue, smoothing it out and covering with another coat of PPV.  If you’ve ever done decoupage before, the process is exactly the same. 

After gathering a bazillion leaves three autumns ago, I made up at least 40 card fronts.  Three years later, the remaining card fronts in my stash look exactly the same as they did when I made them.  None of the leaves are broken and all of the colors have remained true.  This is a good thing!  Unfortunately, the framed "Thank you" did not photograph well . . .

   

Cardstock:         Bazzill Black, Watercolor paper, Japanese Tissue paper “Dragonfly”

Stamps:              Thank you, Mesh, Stampin’ Up Itty Bitty Background

Inks:                    Archival Jet Black, ColorBox Gold, Pilot Marker Gold

Emb Powder:    B’Muse Pale Gold

Dies/Punches:   EK Success Corner Adorner Slot Punch

Doo Dads:          Memory Keepers Antique Brass frame, Inkssentials Crackle Accents