Katherine Hazelton : Little Kat Make Tutorial, painting embossed leaves.

Welcome to the first of hopefully many more little 'Kat Make' tutorials by yours truly.

My first one is how to make these pretty oak leaves which are perfect for decorating cards, tags and for use in mixed media crafts.

These particular leaves are made from metallic cardstock using Sizzix 3-D Impresslits Embossing folder by Tim Holtz. This embossing folder, though not available via Sizzix main website, is still available from various craft shops and via Ebay so it's worth seeing if you can purchase one. If not this technique will work well with any 2D or 3D embossing folders or embossed die cut leaf shapes.

Firstly gather your supplies I am using acrylic paints, a roller( brayer) a sponge and my cut and embossed leaf shapes. I cut mine from Tim Holtz Idea-ology gold cardstock as I wanted a golden glimmer of gold in my leaves.

You will also need an ink pad, in a dark colour, and a damp cloth or babywipe. I also recommend working on a sheet of water colour or mixed media card stock, explanation coming up! 😁

Lets get crafting!

Using your sponge generously add the darker colour of your chosen paint to all of your leaves. I have chosen a lovely dark green. Work it into all the details, at this stage it does look a bit of a mess but that means you are doing it correctly! 😊 Then just before it dries gently wipe away most of the paint using a damp cloth or babywipe this will leave dark areas of paint which adds beautiful shading and depth to your embossing.

Now the added bonus of having paper underneath your leaves! Wipe the paint that is on your damp cloth or babywipe onto your cardstock sheet. You can continue to add paint to your sheet as you work on this project. Once your sheet is covered you will have the bonus of a beautiful piece of hand painted cardstock perfect for using as a background for a card, tag making or for die cutting. So hardly any paint is wasted!

Showing shading after just one application of paint.

Now repeat the same process using a lighter shade of paint, I used a lighter shade of green. This time however the colour is left on so this time apply it thinly and more gently. You want to see some of the darker areas and the base colour of your cardstock.

Now leave your project to thoroughly dry.

Now taking your sponge gently stipple a little light covering of white or light coloured acrylic paint. I highly recommend adding a little at a time. You just want to add some highlights to make your leave or project looks as if its caught in sunlight. The sponge gives it a more textual appearance.

Once you are happy with your leaf colours the final part is to add some definition to the fine details of the leaves. You achieve this by gently rolling ink across your leaves using your roller ( brayer). I inked the whole roller first making sure it has a even coverage then very gently rolled it up the leaf and then again very gently across. This added definition to the veins and edges. A little tip if you are a little heavy handed and applied too much ink leave your project to thoroughly dry and then roll over some white paint. Leave to dry and roll over again with ink.

Leave to thoroughly dry.

Your leaves are now ready for use. If you have no current plans then just make batches of them and keep them by for a rainy day crafting session. You can create all sorts of leaves try doing them in rusts for Autumn or doing glittery ones for Winter even neon ones! Use the same process to create differing looks.

Happy Crafting!