Autumn Is In The Air ~ Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge

Happy Monday everyone!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and ready for the week ahead...

Of course, the good thing about Mondays is we have a brand new challenge starting today over on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog and this week the theme is ~ AUTUMN IS IN THE AIR!

If you're like me and love this glorious season, then you will love this challenge and whether you're inspired by the colours, pumpkins, harvest or Halloween, we invite you to embrace the season and join us!

As many of you will know I love Halloween and for my project, I chose to create a fun little box canvas project using some of the new Tim Holtz Seasonal releases!

So, here we go...

...and this is how I made my fun home decor piece!

I started with a 6" x 6" box canvas. I really wanted to capture the colours of autumn but also have a really textural piece and for this, I added some Texture Paste through the Shatter Layering Stencil and whilst the paste was still wet, I sprinkled over micro beads, chunky glitter and glass beads! This is a great way of using up those bits and pieces that you will never use and because they'll be painted over, it doesn't matter what colour they are, just use them up!

For the next stage, I covered the entire canvas in a coat of gesso and gave it a blast of heat to dry it. When it was completely dry, I blended Fossilised Amber and Squeezed Lemonade Distress Paints over the background. Allow to dry before adding some darker colour around the edge of the canvas ~ for this I used Ground Espresso! Add a few flicks of the dark colour over the background and dry everything thoroughly before moving on.

To give a richness to the canvas and add a more vintage feel, I randomly dabbed a Versamark Ink pad around the edge, sprinkled the ink with Sticky Embossing Powder and heated it. Do not overheat this embossing powder as it will loose it's tackiness! Once the powder is melted, apply vintage gold foil sheets all around the edge.

I then stamped the spider in black Archival Ink down each side of the box, coloured the body with a little Festive Berries Distress Paint and set aside to dry whilst getting all my decorative elements ready.

The first stage was to die cut leaves from Manila card, using the Fall Foliage Thinlits dies. At this stage whilst the card is still in the dies, I also embossed some of the leaves to create the veins by running them through my die cutting machine using an embossing mat. I then inked the leaves using a combination of oranges, greens, purple and red Distress Inks. Once I was happy with the blends, I spritzed them all with Biscotti Perfect Pearls mist and dried them with a heat tool.

For the pumpkin, I used one of the gorgeous characters from the Jack O Lantern Bigz die and die cut it from a really thick card. I coloured the card using Spiced Marmalade Distress Paint and set aside to dry. At this stage, I made a second die cut, traced around the edge onto a piece of chipboard and cut the solid shape out. Paint the surface of the solid pumpkin black and then layer the painted die cut over the top.

Because you have layered the card over the top of the chipboard base, this now creates a slight aperture and raised lip around the eyes, nose and mouth of the pumpkin to which I added a layer of Glossy Accents into. Set aside for the Glossy Accents to slightly harden and once that is done, apply more of the medium over the painted orange area of the pumpkin and then sprinkle with Spiced Marmalade Distress Glitter. Tap away the excess glitter and what you will find is that the mica from the glitter sticks slightly to the aperture areas creating a glisten but the remaining areas will capture more of the chunky glitter to create your beautiful sparkly pumpkin.

Using the die cut leaves, a web from the Gothic Industrious Stickers set ~ I arranged and assembled all my elements by onto the front of my box, together with some cheesecloth that I coloured by spritzing with Hickory Smoke and Spiced Marmalade Distress Spray Stains. 

I added the Boo Alpha Part which I glittered with Shabby Shutters Distress Glitter and a spider.

To complete the scene, I applied a Remnant Rub and a Small Talk Occasions sticker before tucking dried moss into the leaf arrangement and around the pumpkin.

As the finishing touch to the canvas, I attached more die cut leaves to the top and added a Curio Knob. 

I also wanted to add a quirky touch to this piece, so decided to add little feet and for this I used cotton spools that I painted with Distress Paints before attaching them to the base!

I also thought it would be really cool to add some autumnal leaves that I bought from a local store and some lights, which create the perfect atmosphere for my spooky Jack O Lantern centrepiece!

I hope you've enjoyed how I created my project for this week and as always, if you need any further inspiration for this challenge, then you need look no further than our blog to see all the wonderful creations from all the very talented Design Team members and every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp. Good luck....

Just click on the link below to go shopping:

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Thank you so much for all your visits today and hope you all have a great week ahead

See you again soon...love Emma xx

Products used:

Tim Holtz Dies: Jack O Lanterns, Fall Foliage

Tim Holtz Stamps: Carved Spider

Distress Paint: Ground Espresso, Fossilised Amber, Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade, Black Soot

Distress Ink: Spiced Marmalade, Ripe Persimmon, Barn Door, Peeled Paint, Shabby Shutters, Seedless Preserves, Gathered Twigs

Distress Spray Stains: Hickory Smoke, Spiced Marmalade

Mediums: Jet Black Archival Ink, Spiced Marmalade Distress Glitter, Shabby Shutters Distress Glitter, Glossy Accents, Biscotti Perfect Pearls, Versamark Ink Pad, Sticky Embossing Powder

Idea-ology: Curiosities Remnant Rubs, Gothic Industrious Stickers, Twine, Wicked Alpha Parts, Curio Knob, Small Talk Stickers

Surfaces: Manila Card, Vintage Foil Transfer Sheets

Ranger Craft Sheet

Heat Gun

Big Shot

Brushes

Cheesecloth, canvas, moss, chipboard, cotton spools ~ all from my stash