Autumn Wall Hanging

I'm ready for Autumn! It's been a long, hot summer and I'm looking forward to the leaves changing and the temperatures dropping at night. And because I was ready before summer was really over - I started on a project that was all about fall colors. Orange, Red, and Green.

Now there are many other fall colors as well; like a yellow-brown, or yellow-green, or brown itself, deep purple (with more red than blue in it). But this one was about Pumpkins.

I started with heavy watercolor paper and just had fun painting it with orange and green and a brownish-red.

I let that dry overnight - mostly because I had other things to do, it was probably dry long before the next day!

I found some free clipart of pumpkins online and then printed it in the size I wanted. Then I cut the pumpkin out.

I traced that pumpkin onto the back of the already painted watercolor paper. I cut a couple of extra ones so that I could play around with the ink I was going to put on it, without worrying about running out of pumpkins or making mistakes!

I inked the edges with Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Vintage Photo, with a little extra for the stem. I did end up going back later and adding another edging of Black Soot Distress Ink.

I did the exact same steps for the leaf in the middle, with the exception that I used more red in the color. And instead of wire, I used an actual leaf stem from my yard. I dipped it in Mod Podge, let it dry, and then glued it on.

Then I took copper jewelry wire that I already had, and some green floral wire and wrapped them around a pencil. I then glued those to the back of the stem with glossy accents glue. Any type of glue would work there, that's just what I had on hand. I had to lay the pumpkins upside down on a roll of tape so that the curled wire could hang down and the flat part I was gluing would stay in the glue!

I then cut out the rectangles for the letters and inked the edges with Distress Ink in Tea Dye - a little lighter in color than the Vintage Photo, but still a soft brown. I had these old letter stickers that had sticky on both sides called Stickeez by Art Accents. I just got some new glitter from Sparkle N Sprinkle at a Scrapbook Expo called Guava Nectar. Such a beautiful color! That's what I used on the letter stickers for the word Autumn.

I adhered everything with dimensional pop dots. And then I bought a cheap frame at the Dollar Tree! I removed the glass since I knew the dimension on the art would get smashed with it in.

And that is now hanging on a wall in the entryway of my house! I love the colors and it makes me happy when I look at it - what more could I ask for!!