I always love a good autumn leaf craft project. 

Tim Holtz always creates some really fun dies with Sizzix. But I’m always up for a fun new leaf or floral die! But before I get into this tutorial, first I want to thank Scrapbook.com for sending me several of the new Chapter 3 dies and an embossing folder! 

Now let’s get into this tutorial! I used a small, 3x9 inch canvas for this project. To add texture, I applied Scrapbook.com’s Cloud Whip through their Sunflowers stencil. My canvas fabric was still a little loose despite tightening it up with water and a heat tool, so the stenciled texture was a little messy. But don’t get upset and throw out your canvas! Think of this as a happy accident! If you want tone down the mess a bit, simply use your palette knife to spread out the texture in areas, leaving plenty of palette knife “lines” for a good amount of texture.  

When you heat Cloud Whip, it can create a semi-resist with Distress sprays. I wanted it to soak up all the sprays so the texture was more subtle, so I let this air dry while working on other things. One of those things was die cutting out some of the Artsy Leaves! 

I already had a bunch of Distress backgrounds in my stash on Mixed Media Heavystock, so I die cut from a pink background (made with Distress Spray Stain and Oxide Spray in kitsch flamingo and Distress Mica Stain in winterberry) as well as an orange background (made with Distress Spray Stain and Oxide Spray in crackling campfire and Distress Mica Stains in jack-o-lantern and tart cranberry). 

I also die cut some of the leaves from some champagne hued metallic kraftstock. I then spritzed the gold leaves front and back with water and placed them in the new Reptile 3D Embossing Folder and ran through my Big Shot Switch. This folder adds a really amazing texture to the leaves! 

Once the Cloud Whip was dry, I spritzed the canvas with several colors of Distress Spray Stain, creating a gradient. I used victorian velvet, saltwater taffy and crackling campfire. I also added in a small amount of Distress Mica Stain in winterberry and jack-o-lantern. Spritz, dry and splatter with water until you are happy with the look of your canvas then set it aside to fully dry.

I spritzed my canvas right on my glass media mat so I could use up the leftover spray. I spritzed the leftover sprays on the mat with some water to get it all activated again, the dipped a piece of Solar White Ultra Thick cardstock into the sprays. I like to just touch the cardstock to my mat and lift. I repeat this until I’m happy with how the cardstock looks. I ended up with three A2 sized backgrounds! I dried the one with the deepest color using my heat tool and then die cut some more Artsy Leaves from it. 

To assemble the Artsy Leaves, I used Distress Collage Medium Matte. To get those delicate center pieces to adhere well to each leaf, I set an acrylic stamp block on top for about 30 seconds. Now we are ready to decorate the canvas! 

I like to use Prima Marketing’s Heavy Body Gel for an adhesive in a 3D application. It works especially well for their 3D paper flowers. I did two layers of flowers, placing pinks ones over the victorian velvet spray area, the peach flowers over the saltwater taffy part of the canvas, and the orange flowers over the crackling campfire hued section. Once all the flowers were down, I tucked in all the leaves and some of the extra leaf centers into clusters, again matching up the pink, coral and orange colors to the coordinating sections of the canvas. 

Some of my flowers had some white gesso on the edges of the petals. To keep it looking cohesive, I dry brushed a little bit of Prima’s Heavy White Gesso onto the edges of the plain flowers. I also wanted to add some sparkle. I applied some of Sizzix’s Liquid Gloss to the edges of the flower petals and then sprinkled on Distress Glitter Rock Candy. (You can also try Ranger’s Glossy Accents for this as well, but wanted to give the Sizzix version a try—the Sizzix gloss is just a little thicker in consistency.)

After I glittered all the edges of the flower petals, I added a few drops of the Liquid Gloss to the flower petals. This gloss is made to mimic little drops of water on flower petals (the intended use for this product). And it looks lovely! I then finished off by adding some pink and orange jewels to the canvas! 

I hope that you were inspired by this autumn leaf inspired mixed media canvas. And again, a big thanks to Scrapbook.com for sending me some of the Tim Holtz Sizzix Chapter 3 release! Make sure you shop the links below and take advantage of Scrapbook.com’s super fast shipping—plus you can pick up all the Sizzix, Tim Holtz and Prima products all in one place! 

Until next time, happy crafting!

Adrienne 

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Below are the main products that I used for this project.