A Canvas of Color!

When we lived in New York State we had a lot of birch trees next to our home.  Birch trees are very common in the northeastern section of our country.  Native Americans living in the northeast used birch trees in many of their normal applications of natural resources.   Fall colors in the northeast are spectacular.  Once when my brother visited our family in October, we took him "leaf peeping."  That is a common term  used to describe going for a drive to look at the fall leaves.  He was truly shocked at the beautiful colors and the variations of colors from tree to tree. He said to me, "I thought all those pictures of fall leaves being bright red and some purple colors added were painted on for effect."  One of the things I learned after moving to the northeast after I was married for a few years is that different types of trees produce leaves with certain colors in the fall.  Oak trees usually produce brown leaves in the fall -- but pin oaks can be red first and then turn to brown.  Sugar maple trees produce bright red leaves.   And birch trees produce yellow leaves. 

http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/a18922/why-do-leaves-change-color-0909/

http://landscaping.about.com/cs/fallfoliagetrees/a/fall_foliage4.htm

I wanted to have leaves that were relatively accurate for this card.  I used three different Technique Junkie stamps to create this card: Birches - http://techniquejunkies.com/birches/, Life is A Canvas - http://techniquejunkies.com/life-is-a-canvas/, and Vintage Botanical Grapevine - http://techniquejunkies.com/vintage-botanical-grapevine/.

The birch trees were stamped in a gray ink  on white card stock.  I used a gray marker to darken the spots on the birch trees.  I added some gray ink and some pale tan ink just to add visual interest. When I don't have "exactly" what I "need" or want, I like to try and try and think outside the box and find something I can use.  Then I inked up only the larger grape leaves on the grapevine stamp and stamped them on white card stock.  I did this as often as I could get a leaf on the scrap of card stock.  Then I used a small leaf die which was similar in shape to birch leaves to cut out the individual leaves. I used the brush tip of a brown marker to go around the edges of the yellow leaves to give them a distinct edge. I also had a die of the leaf skeleton and cut a few those out with gold text weight paper.  The verse was stamped with Versafine black ink on white vellum, covered with black detail powder and heat embossed.   The yellow was added with my yellow marker. I ran the vellum through a Xryon machine and adhered it to the card front.  I added the various leaves in a design that appealed to me.

I thought the verse really went with the fall theme of leaves bring a canvas of color in the fall.  Fall can be very beautiful but it heralds in cold weather which I do not like. I enjoy warm weather much more than winter.  

I do hope you are enjoying the colors of fall -- get inky!

Judy Jackson