Colorful Fall Layout

Hi again everyone! 

I’m back to share my second project as Guest Designer for Unique Laser Designs! For this project I decided to do a layout using their beautiful wood leaves. They smell so good! I really hesitated to do anything to them at all because the wood grain is so lovely but I had a specific project in mind so went ahead with my original plan.

First, I gave them a coat of Gesso.

Then, I spread some Aleene’s Turbo Tacky Glue over a small section at a time, then placed my pre-treated eggshell over it, and gently pressed it down. Do this until it’s completely covered with eggshell pieces and leave just a little space between pieces. I got the Eggshell Tutorial from Gabrielle Pollacco a few years ago. The pretreatment is the most tedious and time consuming, so you really have to want to try this technique to do it! (I will cover that part at the end of the tutorial for those that want to try it.)

Once you get them all done, let them dry completely. Then you’ll have to carefully break off the eggshells that hang over the edges.

Next, I gathered all my Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks that I thought I might want to use for my leaves. I knew I wanted an Autumn theme so these are the colors I came up with, as well as a little gold Metallic Mixatives and Alcohol Blending Solution.

After being satisfied with the colors, let them dry and add a layer of Ranger Glossy Accents. This seals the eggshells in and leaves a beautiful clear coat over the mosaics. Here are the finished leaves.                                              

Now, for my layout. It took me quite awhile to choose my background paper to compliment the photos I wanted to use as well as the leaf mosaics. I distressed the edges and added Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink to the edges with the wood tool and felt.

This is the first non-human layout I’ve made and it was a challenge for me using so many pictures. It took me several hours of deciding how to place them because I wanted to be sure and feature the beautiful wood pieces I’d just decorated. I also had trouble deciding whether or not to mat the pictures but in the end decided I didn’t want to cover anymore of the background paper than necessary so I just inked the edges of the pictures with the Tim Holtz Vintage Photo.

I then did a little dragonfly stamping and stamp-embossed a dragonfly at the bottom as well as some pretty leaf vines. I then added the title and a few birds and beautiful butterflies from Reneabouquets.com.

Thank you for stopping by! 

All of the trees pictured here were photographed by me on our property with the exception of the aspen, which is at our neighbor’s that is right next to our driveway.

PRODUCTS USED:

ULD W-1186L Leaves 

Daler Rowney Gesso (from Walmart)

Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks – Currant, Butterscotch, Citrus, Sunshine Yellow, Rust, Meadow, Ginger, Red Pepper and Gold Metallic Mixatives

Ranger Glossy Accents

Bo Bunny Forever Fall Bouquet (background paper)

Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink Pad

Fiskars Butterfly Magic Clear Stamps (lower dragonfly)

Inkadinkado Foliage Trails Clear Stamps

Hot Off The Press Dragonfly Clear Stamps (small dragonflies)

A La Mode Embossing Powder

Reneabouquets.com butterflies

To pretreat eggshells: Save up several and soak them in warm water and a bit of anti-bacterial water for at least an hour or overnight. Pull out the membrane and be sure to get all the little bits or the shell pieces won’t glue to your chipboard. Then let them dry for a few hours on paper towels. Then you are ready to go!