Happy Autumn!

This is definitely my favorite time of the year; I love a typical autumn day in NYC when the skies are blue, the air feels crisp, and there isn't even a hint of humidity to cause hair problems.
I have been keeping up with Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2012, and as expected, his October tag is all about Halloween.  I know so many people who are into that holiday, including Tim, and try as I might, it just isn't my thing.  Autumn, however, is right up my alley.  So, my entry sort of nods at Halloween, but is really about the season.  And, it's not even a tag.

Another favorite regular challenge I like to participate in is the Making Art Challenge over at the Wendy Vecchi yahoo group.  Wendy did an autumn tag recently that was featured on the Ranger website, and our challenge was to use the featured technique (adhering sticky back canvas to Wendy's Clearly For Art) and at least one of Wendy's stamps in any sort of creation.

So.....I combined the two, tried several of the techniques Tim used, and the sticky back canvas/CFA technique Wendy used, and came up with this:

 

 

Tim demonstrated making custom colored glitter with the new rock candy dry glitter and alcohol inks.  I don't have any of that product (yet), so used what I did have.....some chunky glitter, and it sure didn't work the way Tim's did, LOL.  But I love taking part in these artistic science experiments.  The larger of the two jack-o-lanterns is covered with my version.  I glittered the smaller one with plain old orange just to show the difference.  When I get some of the rock candy stuff I'll be trying that again.  BTW, the jack-o-lanterns and letters are grungeboard, from two of the many sets of pre-cut shapes I have in my stash.  I don't know if they are manufactured any more; they date back to the days before the Vagabond and Tim's Sizzix dies.  But being a good hoarder collector, I still have tons of them.

 

The tissue paper background is straight out of Tim's demo, but over top I used Wendy's background stamp from Optical Art.  On the bottom left you will see her little spider stamp from Botanical Art.  To make it stand out a bit more, I used black soot distress ink and black embossing powder.

 

All of the autumn leaves were done on the canvas covered CFA.  For those who don't know, Clearly For Art is a wonderful product (some sort of plastic, I think) that can be heated to make it bendable.  Yes, lots of products do that.  But the cool thing about CFA is that it can be heated, manipulated, then reheated if you don't like it.  It goes flat again, hardens up in seconds, and can be heated and shaped that way countless times. 

 

I cut the leaves from both the regular sized and mini tattered leaves dies, and colored them with both distress stains and Dylusions sprays.  Although they don't match up exactly, I also stamped over the colored leaves with Tim's Falling Leaves stamp set.  I used black archival ink for that, and didn't press too hard.  I just wanted a hint of the leaf veins to add some texture and realism. 

 

Happy Autumn!