Autumn Wreath As The Weather Turns Colder

Yesterday was one of those days that reminded me winter is not far away. It was much colder, and the waves of heavy rain were studded with ice pellets. The very windy weather also made for difficult driving conditions and I was glad to make it home in one piece. This morning is better with bright sunshine melting the ice on the deck, and we have double-digit temperatures forecast for later in the week. Still, it won’t be long before ice and snow becomes the norm. So today I decided to make a wreath style gift tag in warm autumn colours before they’re gone for another year.

AUTUMN WREATH

This project actually began several weeks ago. I wanted to experiment with an autumn colour combination with no real end project in mind. So using one of the dies in the Wreath Builder set I cut out some Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper. I placed the die-cut piece onto a plate and used the largest of the Water Painters to soak it with clean water. Then I went looking for some autumn colours.

Over the years I’ve created different autumn colour palettes but this time I wanted to include some of the 2020-2022 In Colors. So I pulled out ink refills in Bumblebee, Just Jade and Cinnamon Cider, together with Cherry Cobbler. Then using the medium Water Painter I began to add colour to the wreath.

Creating an autumn coloured wreath - Stage 1 - Bumblebee ink. #papercraftwithme

First I placed a couple of drops of Bumblebee ink onto a saucer and picked up some of the ink with the wet brush. Then I simply touched the brush tip onto the wet watercolor paper. Once I was happy with the colouring I walked away to let it dry a little.

Creating an autumn coloured wreath - Stage 2 - add Just Jade ink. #papercraftwithme

After about an hour I went back and added some dots of Just Jade ink in exactly the same way. Because the paper had been sitting on a plate it hadn’t dried out completely and the inks were able to blend a little. Once again I left the paper for about an hour, then added dots of Cinnamon Cider ink. I was obviously distracted at some point after this as I completely forgot to photograph this stage

Eventually I want back to the plate and added dots of Cherry Cobbler ink. Then I left it to dry completely. In fact I left it for over a week.

Creating an autumn coloured wreath - Stages 3 and 4 - add Cinnamon Cider and Cherry Cobbler inks. #papercraftwithme

BEST WISHES

It was only today that I decided to use the autumn wreath I’d created. I could have used it on a card but instead opted for a gift tag.

First I used VersaMark ink to stamp “Best Wishes” from the Arrange A Wreath Stamp Set onto some Thick Very Vanilla Card. Next I sprinkled the sticky ink with Gold Stampin’ Emboss Powder and tapped off the excess. Then after removing some stray specks, I melted the rest of the powder using my Heat Tool set on 2 (high).

Instead of punching or die-cutting the sentiment I cut it out using Paper Snips, and set it aside.

PRETTY FLOWER

Now I wanted to add a larger focal piece and for that went back to the Wreath Builder Dies. In fact with the dies I found some Real Red 6-petal flowers left over from a previous project. They would be perfect so I took two of them and glued them together using Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow).

For the centre of the flower I cut some Gold Foil Sheet using the small circle die from the set. Then I attached it to the petals with more liquid glue. Finally I was ready to turn the various pieces into a tag.

I wanted the colourful wreath to really stand out so I chose Basic Black Card for the tag base. From the Layering Circles Dies I took the #7 plain-edged die (counting from the smallest up). Using this die I cut the Basic Black Card. Then using the #5 plain-edged die I cut some Thick Very Vanilla Card.

I punched a hole at the top of the black circle using the Detailed Trio Punch then glued the wreath to the circle. Turning the tag over I glued the smaller circle to the back so I’d have somewhere to write. Then I tied some Linen Thread through the punched hole.

The sentiment came next, attached with Mini Stampin’ Dimensionals, followed by the assembled flower.

Just one final touch was needed and that was to add some bling to the flower centre. This was a simple task of adding a self-adhesive Gilded Gem and with that my gift tag was complete.

For some other projects created using the Arrange A Wreath Stamp Set and coordinating dies see these earlier blog posts:

PRODUCT LIST

BUNDLE BONUS – I bought the Arrange A Wreath Stamp Set and coordinating Wreath Builder Dies using a single ‘bundle’ item number. This meant that I saved 10% off the cost of buying the two items separately. I’ve included links for both options so you can explore these if you wish.