'The Colours of Autumn' Frilly and Funkie New challenge !

I am delighted  to be presenting this project as a guest designer, for the Frilly and Funkie blog. I had the great honour of being selected as a winner for the 'From the Heart' challenge and now I have the great pleasure of sharing my guest design project, for the new 'Autumn Colours' challenge. You can find all the details of the challenge over on the Frilly and Funkie blog. 

The theme for this fortnight is 'Autumn Colours'. This is quite perfect, as there is inspiration everywhere ! I chose to make this autumn wall hanging as it is similar in construction to my winning heart and I thought it would be nice to share the process for anyone who might like to have a go at a similar home decor project.

I started with a chipboard circle measuring around 9 1/2 inches wide. 

I gave it a coat of gesso and then used embossing paste through my favourite Wendy Vecchi Flourish stencil, to add texture to the frame. Once it was dry, I gave the frame a coat of Paper Artsy Fresco paint. I used a mixture of Vintage Lace, Stone and a touch of Mushroom. After more drying, I used Inca Gold Paste, to highlight the stenciling. I also blended archival ink in Potting Soil, around the edges.

I used cream coloured 160gsm card, to die cut  a whole bunch of  leaves using, Tim Holtz's Bigz Tattered Leaves die. I also used some leaves I cut on my Pazzles Inspiration, and some smaller die cuts from the Movers and Shapers Mini Tattered Leaves. This gave me a nice variety of shapes and sizes. I then coated each leaf with gesso. 

Once the leaves were dry, I used a variety of Dylusions Sprays to colour the surface. This was great fun! I let the colours mingle together so that they formed pools and drips. Note to self...... wear protective gloves next time! Those Dylusions colours sure are strong ! I still have red cuticles after three days of hand washing and washing up! Whilst the leaves were drying I turned my attention to making the flowers. There are three different types, the two larger ones were made with the Tattered Florals die. You can see a step by step I posted some time ago, on how to make these, by following this link. 

All of the flowers have also been coloured with Dylusions Sprays. I made the spiky flowers by snipping a piece of card and rolling it up very tightly. I have a Cheery Lynn die which cuts a fringe, but I wanted to see if it was possible to make a larger one by hand cutting a strip.

These pictures show the process I used.............

........and this is what it looks like after being sprayed with colour. I adhered all the elements to the frame with Cosmic Shimmer glue. This has a nice thin nozzle which helps when you have lots of layers to attach. I played around with different layouts before deciding which one I preferred. It's a good idea to take a quick photo before gluing everything down as it's easy to forget where things  go. I added in a few little die cut acorns here and there, before finishing off with an extravagant bow made of Distress Stained seam binding ribbon. I also adhered a  metal washer to the back of the frame, in order to counter balance the flower arrangement. This avoids it from being lopsided when it is hung up.

I've had great fun working on this guest design project and would like to thank all those talented design team members, over at Frilly and Funkie for inviting me.

I hope you'll  find time to soak up all the wonderful autumn colours and be inspired to use them in your work and don't forget to show the Frillie and Funkie team. Who knows you could be their next guest designer !  x