Fall into fall

Here in the U.S. the first day of fall was Saturday.  And a gorgeous day it was here in central Illinois.  Because of the drought and heat I doubt we'll have much of a show of color in our trees.  So I thought I'd make up for that with this entry for the challenge hosted by Frilly & Funkie.  They are offering a $25 gift certificate to their store as well as a chance to have your project named best in the competition.  The challenge closes Oct. 2 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

Autumn is my favorite time of year...I love the color palette of browns, golds, oranges, greens and the dark reddish-purples.  I don't mind raking leaves but would prefer to scuffle through them on my morning walk.   Our flowers have pretty much gone to seed which make the birds very happy.

So, on with the show!  Up first is a completely (gasp!) naked 3" chip brush.  I found a 12 pack of them at the big box hardware store so I'm sure another one will show up every now and again.

Here's the back of the finished brush...you can see what happens when you cover it with Antique Linen distress crackle paint and a wash of watered down brown acrylic paint with a touch of Coffee archival ink rubbed along the edges.  It looks so old and beat up!

And here's the finished brush!  I really didn't know when to stop adding flowers and leaves.  A number of Kraft core'dinations strips were cut using Tim's Tattered Floral Garland and Autumn Gatherings alterations dies.  Before removing the die cuts from the strips I sanded them.  Saw that Tim had done that and I really like the effect; plus it's way easier than trying to do it on a fragile petal or leaf stem.

The petals were misted with water and formed with a ball roller or just my fingers.  Ditto for the leaves...floral and from the trees.  Some of them were smudged with distress inks.

The flower centers are small wood beads I colored with Ranger's archival inks in several colors.  Some took the color better than others but I guess that mimics nature.

I used some torn burlap around the top of the handle.  From it dangles a Maya Road canvas tag that I dipped in some distress stain and distress ink.  The word 'autumn' was stamped in Jet Black archival ink and is from Stamp Camp.  Mist, wad, heat.  Love it!

Perhaps I should add a pot or 2 of mums to my front stoop...the pumpkins, gourds and leaf garlands look kinda lonely without some flowers sporting their fall wardrobe.