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:

StencilGirl Talk

Terri Stegmiller

Linda Kittmer

Kirsten Reed you are Here

Marjie Kemper

Janet Joehlin

Judy Shea

Linda Cain

Corrine Gilman

Leslie Tucker Jenison

Mary C. Nasser