The Folk Art Factory: How to make Autumn leaves from paper

Trust me, these leaves are like money in the bank - make heaps in all sizes and shapes!

I could make Autumn leaves all year! I wonder if it is because I grew up in Australia, the land of the gum tree where anything with a colour other than grey green was something special. The only deciduous trees around where we lived were planted by either early settlers or people with an inconsolable longing for the old country.

I love Ranger Glossy Accents to add some dew drops.

They reminded me of Germany which is my old country and when I looked at a beautiful tree with its Autumn splendour on, I could travel through time and space to a happy childhood moment. Even now that I understand the science of what makes a leaf change from green to orange and red, I still love them. This is a love that is not going to go away soon.

This one was made with the Distress Ink only method (see the link in the text) and then I stamped it with a leaf stamp instead of putting veins in. There is more than one way....

So as a card maker, it is a given that I will use Autumn leaves as soon as it is polite to do so. I use them in the Australian Autumn around April (also my birth month which might explain things) and in my spiritual Autumn as it is seen in the northern hemisphere. Any excuse!

They are perfect for adding an accent.

A while ago, I made some pretty Autumn leaves with an ink blending technique which looks really nice and it is easy too. You can find the link here and this was in the days before the wonderful Tim Holtz came up with Distress Oxides.

Look how much softer the Oxides on the left are compared to the New England vibrancy of the Distress Inks on the right! Both techniques have their uses.

Well I have been playing around with Oxides and I have a new technique for you. The beauty of it is that you can pick, choose or even combine either way! Let's do this!

The splatters really make a difference I think.

Gather these supplies:
-Distress Oxide Inks - I have used barn door, aged mahogany, fired brick, spiced marmalade, carved pumpkin, wild honey, gathered twigs, tea dye.

You can also use a bit of green to show a just turning leaf. I love crushed olive

-Distress Inks - barn door, walnut stain
-dark brown acrylic paint. I love DecoArt Americana.
-white 250gsm card stock
-autumn leaf dies. I love the Sizzix Thinlits set but anything nice will be lovely
-Sizzix Paper Sculpting Kit
-old toothbrush
-black marker
Your usual paper crafting tools

Begin by setting out the oxides onto your work surface. I like to begin with the lighter values....

Starting light and going dark gives a totally different look to the other way around - have a play!

Add some water (you know the drill)...

Spray just enough water to make the oxides bead on the non-stick mat.

Do the first print and dry the card. Make another and dry that too.

The first print can be a bit meh! Keep going though!

Orange and some red next but less so that the lighter ones stay visible here and there....

Now we are getting some depth here!

Then some darker reds and a bit of brown....

I cut my A4 sized piece of card in half for ease of handling. It fits onto the no-stick mat better too.

Aged mahogany ink and frayed burlap are two colours which oxidise in such an interesting way! I love the bloom that they leave.

Finished this bit and all of the paper is covered.

This is a totally random effect, made still more random when the leaves are cut out. But that is what makes them look so natural.

You can see the bloom left from the aged mahogany oxide here.

Splatter the card next with a rich dark brown acrylic paint using a toothbrush. This really accurately mimics the brown spots which appear on real leaves.

When you cut the leaves out and ink the edges with a bit of brown, this will all fall into place.

Dry the card well and consider making a couple at a time and then having the leaves ready in a bag when you need them.

There is a whole universe in there!

Next, cut the leaves getting as many as you can from your precious card stock....

I love this die set because it has a few size options which means that you can get the most from your paper.

Just perfect for any time of the year!

Please be careful if you are using more than one die at a time on the sheet - the temptation is to put them close together but if they shift and get on top of one another and then go through the rollers, the die will be ruined. Tape with low tack tape or do less at a time and come back in with smaller ones to do the gappy bits.

Believe it or not, you can still get some from this piece!

If you have a bit of space but the leaf is hanging over a bit, you can still use it - it will look like the leaf has insect damage...

This Insect damage looks wonderfully organic on the finished leaf.

I like to ink these with a Distress marker in a suitable brown like walnut stain to emphasise the damage...

No such thing as unusable!

You can get a lot of leaves from an A5 sheet!

Don't be afraid to use other die sets (not necessarily for Autumn) to use every last corner of the card - you can never get quite this effect ever again!

I love these colours!

Those of you who went and had a look at the link that I gave a bit earlier, will notice that I have said to use a stylus to make the veins in the leaves. This is still perfectly fine! There is literally no one policing this. However. We have evolved in Craftland and we now have a gorgeous tool set just for doing things with paper flowers and leaves....

This is a game changer for making flowers and leaves.

It is a perfectly designed collection of tools and well worth the outlay. But if you only have a stylus, use that! And so why a stylus....and um,....what is a stylus? Great Question! It is a tool with some metal bits (apologies for the über technical language) and most importantly it has a metal ball on the end of each metal end.

That ball on the end is important because it crushes and bruises the paper fibres rather than breaking and tearing them

This is important because when you make the veins in the leaves, you will drag this tool across the paper.

You do not want to cut or tear the leaves. The ball means that the paper fibres will be bruised and crushed and made into a new shape (the vein) but not actually severed which would ruin everything.

The pointy tool in the kit is specially designed for doing the job precisely.

In the tool kit, there is a sharp pointy tool with no actual ball but the metal is shaped and smoother so that cutting is not easy. It is specifically designed to do this job. So put something soft under the leaf and then make the veins working in the direction of growth....

Here I am working from the back of the leaf to make the veins stand out and be more prominent.

You can do it from the back and have raised veins. Or from the front and have recessed ones.....

The top leaf is from the back and the bottom from the front.

The leaves with veins will curl slightly and this gives them extra realism...

I love the colour variations!

Look at the real thing for inspiration...

A great excuse to get outside and walk in the Autumn air.

And you can bring the veins out with an application of Distress Ink. Here I have used Ground Espresso...

The veins made from the back are not a subtle.

Now these leaves are looking great but sometimes they can look a bit dull (that is both a blessing and a curse of oxides). You can 'glaze' them with Distress inks.

Wild honey is a very subtle glaze. The one on the right has the glaze on it here and there.

What is a glaze? Distress Oxide is a milky and more opaque ink and that is why the effects can be milky and soft. It is also this property that allows you to layer without creating mud. Distress Inks are more see through.

The right one is glazed with wild honey.

This means that if you go over your Oxides with Distress, you will still see a lot of the detail like the spots and splatters.

Here again, the right hand side is glazed.

Don't go mad but use the distress ink to warm up the leaf and then come back in and enhance the edge only with brown Distress Ink. See the difference? You can glaze with any colour but warmer tones like red, yellow and orange will warm your leaf up.

A touch of brown on the edges (ground espresso Distress ink) looks great.

Make these in bulk and keep them handy for your Autumn makes.

Well that is about all there is to it! Thank you for bearing with me over this quite long post. These was a lot of information to share with you and I wanted you to have all of it.

I love this effect on a card that i made for my MIL's birthday last year. I covered the main leaf with Glossy Accents which made the colours pop even more!

I am also planning a tute with greens for spring and summer so stand by for that in the future- it will be much shorter I promise!