Friday, November 22, 2013

Fall Leaves & Gratitude…A StencilGirl Blog Hop

Leaves have been falling here a little too rapidly this year thanks some extreme winds we have had. I love the colors of the changing leaves here in Tennessee, the beautiful landscape of rolled hay bales, barns and gorgeous color from Mother Nature!



It was easy for me to choose Terri Stegmiller's Striped Leaves stencil from StencilGirl to create a fall piece that conveyed my love of the season.


(1) First step, I created a background on my piece of wood with some tissue paper, handwriting of things I am grateful for and a few scrapes of cream paint.  After it dried I sketched out the trunk of my tree.

(2) I then added in some color with watered down paints.  Allowing them to pool, drip and move around on the wood.  I used Sap green, Pyrole Orange and Quinocridone Crimson.



At this point I am just loving the abstract look...




 (3) After the paint dried, I began using the stencil to add leaves to my tree.  I mixed thicker paints and used them with a palette knife, scraping the paint through the stencil together.  After all, aren't most leaves multi-colored?


The colors I used on the leaves were: Crimson, Raw Umber, Yellow Ochre and a tiny bit of Sap Green here and there.



(4) After they all dried, I wrote a quote from Emily Bronte in between the leaves which says, "Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree."

Here are some close ups.








I hope you enjoyed!
Remember to leave a comment.  Each comment entered in the ENTIRE hop is eligible for a giveaway from StencilGirl!  Good Luck!

For more of my art tutorials be sure to visit Kirsten Reed Designs.

Here is the rest of the Blog Hop Order:


Kirsten Reed you are Here



82 comments:

  1. Loved the way the handwriting comes through, gorgeous looking leaves!

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  2. Gorgeous piece...love the texture of the leaves and the quote...really wonderful!
    Thanks for sharing your process!

    Hugs Giggles

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  3. This is so beautiful! I love the texture and the colours you chose are fabulous Kirsten!

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  4. Love the texture you achieved ... a beautiful piece! Thanks for sharing ...

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  5. Fabulous - I love the colours!
    Thanks for sharing the processes!

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  6. Beautiful piece! I, too, am inspired by autumn leaves and have done 3 or 4 art journal pages recently featuring leaves. I was not familiar with the Emily Bronte quote -- I may have to "steal" it for one of those art journal pages. Thanks so much for sharing your work.

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  7. Love the thick paint effect on making this tree so dramatic. xox

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  8. love it, especially the use of thick paint giving a 3D, textured effect.

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  9. Kirsten, I love the beautiful fall colors and the texture.

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  10. This is just stunning - those colors, that texture, the perfect quote - beautiful.

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  11. Beautiful. Would like to try this on fabric.

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  12. love, love your painting! the abstract background and seeing your process- fabulous!

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  13. Beautiful color and textured leaves. Love your painting process using Terri's striped leaves stencil. I too am enjoying the changing season, especially the colors which you have captured so well.

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  14. Wow! Love your palette and textures you achieved! Luscious colors!

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  15. Perfect Autumnal project... it is Beautiful!! I would have never guessed it was a wood base. The colors and the layers are amazing... beautiful!

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  16. Kristen, what an absolutely gorgeous piece! I sooo love your rich colors and all the layers and textures! Superb!

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  17. Love what you did with the Leaves stencil. The colors are wonderful!

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  18. This is terrific. Great substrate shape, color, thoughts. Love the whole darn thing. :)

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  19. Never thought of scraping paint through the stencil for an 'impasto' look...simple but very effective technique.

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  20. So beautiful, what an inspiration to me!

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  21. Oh wow I really love your piece very much, autumn is my most favorite time of year-and I love what you have done here-thank you for sharing your technique
    Kathy

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  22. Interesting new ideas for using stencils for sure. Love the look on wood.

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  23. Beautiful project. Love your tissue paper technique!!!
    <3 J

    jwoolbright at gmail dot com

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  24. This is gorgeous Kirsten! The colors you used are beautiful together.

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  25. Am really enjoying this blog hop and seeing uses in many mediums.

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  26. I love autumn too! All the falling leaves are wonderful and I really love how you captured that... Beautiful artwork!

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  27. Amazing dimension using Terri's leaf stencil. Thank you for hopping. Falling into Autumn Bliss for certain...

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  28. Another great use of a stencil that I might have passed up had I not seen this post. Thanks much!
    textilerecycler@yahoo.com

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  29. Love this piece, especially the hand writing between the finished leaves. Thanks for sharing.

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  30. I too love this time of year when the leaves become such a riot of color. Living in Massachusetts, the colors come earlier than where you are. I did have an opportunity to spend a couple days in North Carolina where I was able to to see the color change all over again. Now you have brought it back to life for me yet again! Great idea for the use of the stencils and I just loved your use of color as well.

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  31. I love the fall color combinations you created and how the words are peeking thru. Fabulous piece!

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  32. Wow, you did an amazing job! Thanks for the inspiration and I'll check out the other tutorials you mentioned.

    Smiles,
    Kelly

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  33. Gorgeous....absolutely LOVE seeing the progression of this piece.

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  34. Love your art work! Not just a stencil anymore! Hugs, Sanna

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  35. This is amazing!!! Fall leaves are just so beautiful and you've captured them beautifully! Thanks for the step-by-step as well as the change to win the stencils!

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  36. Look at those GORGEOUS colors!!!!!!! Fabulous!

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  37. I am in love with this stencil, now. I can't believe what a glorious piece you created with it

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  38. Oh my... What fab colors you created creating this art work. Very impressing. Thanks for sharing.
    Hugs from SPAIN

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  39. I don't know if my comment got posted, so sorry if this is a duplicate....I said that I love the piece you made; the colors are great...and done on a piece of wood?! Fabulous! Wishing you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving:)

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  40. Lovely! I really like the colours and the technique.

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  41. This is gorgeous! I love the colors and texture in this panel. I'm certainly getting a larger view of the versatility of stencils. This hop is wonderful!

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  42. is an stunning project, love it, you're a fantastic artist!

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  43. Completely gorgeous! I love the layer of handwriting.

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  44. That is really pretty. Love the hop and the chance to see new stencil techniques!

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  45. Just TOO beautiful! Such colors!
    All these colors shout out autumn is here!

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  46. Kirsten you have used one of my favorite stencils to glorious effect! Good on ya, mate.
    cindy

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  47. This is simply gorgeous. I love what you did with the tissue paper. Wow.

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  48. Outstanding... I only wish to create something so lovely!! Wow!Love love love the stencil!

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  49. You used the best colors!!! I remember looking out my back door and seeing them!! (in Kentucky!) Thanks for the great inspiration!

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  50. What a wonderful piece Kirsten! Will enjoy following your blog!

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  51. This piece expresses the autumn season beautifully. Thank you for sharing it with us.

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  52. I love fall and leaves too ... this is gorgeous and very well done! I have some small square stretched canvas that I bought for a different project but never started and since I have 4 of them, I think a seasons grouping of tree/leaves would be fun to do and would be a great gift for my art friend this year. Thank you for the idea!

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  53. so lovely I want to touch it :-)

    ArtistPoet dot Girl @gmail dot com

    good luck to all

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  54. Beautiful art work. Thank you for sharing this project. I love it.

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  55. Love all the texture on this wood plaque! Thanks for the inspiration!

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  56. your step by step photos and instruction are perfect ~ thanks so much for taking the time to give such detailed instructions for those of us that can't afford to take art classes ~ the leaves art just beautiful ~
    mary

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  57. very nice. thanks for the inspiration

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  58. Love the colors you chose...thanks for the chance to win.

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  59. This is a beautiful piece you created...love the colors!! On a more personal note, I was wondering where in TN you live because I sure don't see those colors in the Columbia/Nashville area. I am from upstate NY originally and really used to seeing brilliant fall colors. Compared to NY, everything down here is muted

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    1. Hey Cat...we are neighbors! I live in Spring Hill! We have lots of great colors in our neighborhood! :)

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  60. What a beautiful project! It captures the feeling of fall so well. Thanks so much for sharing.

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  61. I love driving to look at fall colors. Your piece reminds me of that. Thanks for the giveaway.

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  62. wow, i loved it before the stencil and after the stencil. beautiful piece. xoxo

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  63. Jaw dropping gorgeous!!! WOW! I am speechless. LOVE IT! :0)

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  64. Great stencils. Love the give away.

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  65. I absolutely love that. What a lovely piece of art to have hanging at home. I will give your technique a go. TFS

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  66. Love the layers of words under the design. And of course, the beautiful fall colors!

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  67. Beautiful!! Wow! Thanks for sharing a great creative idea!! Love it!!

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  68. Stunning. Thank you so much for detailing the process. I'm just getting into mixed media myself, and while craving the end look, I can't seem to get there! I even appreciate that this started on wood, not a canvas.

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  69. Great project. Thanks for sharing!

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  70. The subtlety of the quote among the leaves is inspired.

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  71. Love the colours and the use of layers.

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