Stars And Stripes And Falling Leaves

Hi! Birgit here with a fall themed stars and stripes blog post.

When we were at the woods for a nice fall walk recently I picked up some leaves to take home.

I wasn't sure what to do with them, thought I'd might paint or draw on them as I had seen some fabulous leaves on the internet.

And then, when I was wondering what to create for today's blog post I saw the dried leaves lying on my desk and wondered if it would be possible to emboss them. I was thrilled to discover how well that goes!

The leaves I created are really quick and easy to make and I think they are a great eye catcher on a fall table. Or maybe frame them? I can imagine 3 frames next to each other with one leaf in the middle of each of them. Smaller leaves would be perfect to use on a scrapbook page or the focus point on a nice card...

What do you need to create these?

First of all leaves that had the chance to dry for a couple of days. I had 2 different ones and they both worked well but I can imagine that some leaves might crumble when they are dry and you try to stamp on them so better have a variety on hand.

Versamark or any other embossing ink.

Your favorite colors WOW! Embossing Powders (I used: Opaque Bright White Regular, Primary Apple Red, Bay Area Blue Regular, Indigo, Berrylicious Regular, Glamour Green Embossing Glitter)  and WOW! Deck The Halls Stamp Set.

Black permanent ink.

Start with carefully covering the biggest part of the leaf with Versamark.

Add the first color of embossing powder, starting at the bottom of the leaf. Tap off the excess embossing powder and make sure there is no loose powder left.

Then add the second color of embossing powder right above the first and tap off the excess powder again, going over the first color. Repeat this untill the whole inked area is covered. 

Carefully heat emboss. Don't heat too long, just enough to make the powder melt! Your room will smell as if you were in the woods :).

Finally stamp the stars. I used the text christmas tree and made sure only to ink the star at the top.

(Or you can use a piece of scrap paper as a mask to avoid getting the tree print on your leaf.)

It's as simple as that!

I think this is totally cool. The big one is my favorite and will be on my dinner table for a while! :)

Thank you for stopping by today!

Happy crafting!

Birgit