Fall Leaves

Like it or not, fall is late to arrive in my part of the country. Unable to wait for the weather to cooperate, I pulled out a lovely photo taken early autumn at a park in Philadelphia, PA. The colors of the leaves were incredible to this southern girl, whose trees more often go from green to brown, with not much in between. In an attempt to capture all that riotous beauty, I designed this page:  

It began with a maple leaf from the Leaf It To Me file, cut large from the center of a woodgrain-look paper. Next I pulled out patterned paper in colors ranging from golden yellow to deep russet red, decided on four, and cut the same leaf design in various sizes. I adhered them in layers on my background sheet as shown in the series of photos below:

Each time I added leaves, the foreground and photo were loosely placed on top, so that I could check my progress. Finally, I was able to attach the top layer and photo to the page, finishing it all off with pen stitching, ink splatters, and a few embellishments. 

Several leftover leaves were adhered along the perimeter:

Fast becoming a favorite, the Tall Type cut file, was used to create a simple title:

Before cutting from the dark, woodgrain-look paper, I had my digital cutting program remove the center pieces from each letter. After cutting, I fashioned each into into a small notched flag and backed them with patterned papers:

I'm thinking you could also pull out some spring photos to go with the Leaf It To Me cut file. I'll bet those leaves would look FABULOUS in shades of emerald, leaf, and pine green!

Supplies: Patterned paper-American Crafts, Simple Stories, Basic Grey. Stickers-Simple Stories. Flair badge-Studio Calico. Mist-Heidi Swapp, Maya Road.

Happy Fall Y'all!