Shabby mixed media leaves frame DecoArt

This is the project made for my September contribution to the DecoArt media blog. Being as it went live at the end of September I decided to go autumnal with distressed leaves in a frame. I had made two practice pieces before starting to see if I wanted the stamped leaves to be brown or golden autumnal colours. I chose the shabby effect but of course if you give this a go you could try any colours and any stamps you like. I think it would look good with seaweed as an underwater scene.

1 Take the frame and give one side a coat of these coloured paints - raw umber, burnt sienna, burnt umber and raw sienna. Mix the colours on the substrate as you are painting. Blend the colours with each other as you go along to create a tonal blended look.
At the same time paint the back of the panel piece on just one side and blend the paints in the same way. (This will become the back of your finished frame)

2. Stamp some falling leaf shapes using clear embossing ink on the frame piece and heat with clear embossing powder.

(Photo shows the powder on the leaves before being heated)

3. When it's cooled off  paint over the frame with titan buff and titanium white also blending them together as you go. When the paint is nearly dry rub it away from the embossed leaves letting the autumnal brown shapes show through.

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I was going to do steps 4 and 5 at this point but decided to leave them till later and when later came I decided not to do them at all!!! I think I prefer the more neutral colours and the simpler effects o the frame.

4. Dip the paints in watery burnt umber and where the leaves are wet add some raw umber with a paint brush.

5. When it's dry repeat step three using just a small amount of pyrrole red mixed with raw umber.

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6. Take the back panel and on the raw side (which becomes the inside when the top frame is layered on) draw a pencil line inside the frame to show the size of the panel that will be exposed.

7. Over a slightly larger area paint on a layer of white gesso and whilst it is still wet randomly paint and blend in some white crackle paste. Leave it to dry naturally. (I hadn't tried mixing these two before so had no idea what would happen). What we got is some random crackle over the board which looks pretty cool blended into the gesso. I must make a mental not though to not overwork it as that has prevented some of the crackle paste from working.
 

8. Whilst the background is drying die-cut three leaves and stamp them using a slightly watered down mix of titanium white and titan buff using a largish leaf stamp. (See materials list)

9. Soak the leaves with water and scrunch them up and leave them to dry or heat dry them. Blend ground espresso distress ink round the edges.

10. Back to the background. Paint raw umber antiquing cream over the crackle areas, leave for a few minutes to dry and wipe away with a wet babywipe.

11. Take a tree mask and paint one side with raw umber and burnt sienna .....

12. .....  then flip it over onto the background, cover with a dry piece of kitchen roll and press it onto the background. You will need to do this several times to get an impression. After the last stamp of the stencil spritz it with water so that you get some distressed areas.

13. Dry the tree shape, draw round the tree stencil with a permanent brown pen and shade in some of the branches, finish with a small brush and paint in some raw umber.

14. If you place the frame over you will see how much you need to colour in.

15. Now I decided to fill the centre background with some of the faux encaustic layers I love - see my media board where it all started back in May HERE. I began with some asemic writing using a black sharpie pen, added some colour with chalk pastels going over the tree with white pastel to tone it down a bit and then sealed it with matte medium.

16. Once dry I dipped it into some watery titanium white media acrylic and dried it repeating a couple of times until I was happy with the effects. Then repeated with titan buff. Seal with matte medium.

17. Now to add some texture with modeling paste mixed with white gesso. When dry dribble some raw umber paint over the three areas, dry and some more white chalk.

18. Now adhere the frame and background together using decou-page and leave it under something heavy for a while for the glue to bond. When it has done so fill the centre with clear modeling paste and leave overnight to dry.

These are the two practice pieces I spoke about at the beginning of the post. I think the brighter piece would work just as well especially if you are someone who loves autumnal colours.

Thanks for taking a look at my project.

xxx