Beautifall Layout

Hi everyone! I have a new layout to share using my Truly Grateful collection with Pink Paislee!

First, here is a process video so you can see how to create this layout from start-to-finish:

I started by die cutting my Large Leaf cut file from the quilted Paper 09. This paper looks like I spent hours piecing together lots of different patterned papers, but really it's just one paper! Love that.

Next I used my Brother sewing machine and zig zag stitched between all of the different patterns to emphasize the quilt-like vibe. I used white Coats & Clark thread for contrast and then trimmed most of the long thread ends. I also straight stitched around the border of the leaf to enhance the leaf shape. To help the large leaf stand out from the background, I distressed the edges to reveal the white core using fine-tipped scissors.

For my background I chose B-side of Paper 07 which has four blocks of solid color. I wasn't feelin' the dark brown section so I covered it up with a piece of the painterly purple B-side of Paper 15. The other sections were distressed so to help the new section look like it belongs I grabbed sand paper and lightly distressed it to match. Now it totally looks like the paper came like this!

I wanted to add mixed media to the background so I placed the large leaf at the epicenter of the color blocks, roughly traced under it with a pencil, and then used a toothbrush to splatter watered down white acrylic paint over the traced leaf. Then I grabbed my favorite watercolors (Pastel Dreams and Tropicals by Prima) and splashed them tone-on-tone over the background. Once everything was dry I adhered the leaf using foam squares back in place. The foam squares literally make the leaf pop off from the page and creates dimension and shadows.

I placed my photo over the leaf at a slight angle for interest. The title "BEAUTIFALL" is created with Thickers and I added an "you amaze me" die cut from the Journaling Spots underneath. I had my Silhouette Cameo 3 cut out all of the colorful leaves from Paper 10 using the PixScan feature and grabbed a few to adhere tone-on-tone to add interest to the page. I bent up all the leaf edges for texture.

I journaled below the title drawing lines first with a pencil and then writing with a dark blue pen to bring out the dark blues around the page. For sparkle and shine I sprinkled sequins from the Mixed Embellishments, dots from the Epoxy Stickers, and enamel hearts also from the Mixed Embellishments, tone-on-tone, to finish embellishing. They just look like little pieces of candy you want to eat! :)

I hope this page inspires you to pick up the Truly Grateful collection and create fall-themed pages! I was so excited to scrap this photo of my kids holding the world's largest leaves. They are from Big Leaf Maple trees and surprisingly the tree wasn't all that large, but the leaves it dropped were over 18" across! I've never seen leaves so big! So I figured a big leaf die cut was an appropriate focal point for this page :) Thanks so much for stopping by, let me know if you have any questions, and have a "BEAUTIFALL" day!

SUPPLIES: Patterned paper, stickers, Thickers, sequins, die cuts, embellishments: TRULY GRATEFUL; Watercolors: Prima - Pastel Dreams watercolors & Tropicals; white acrylic paint; Cut file: Large Leaf by Paige Evans; Sewing machine: Brother; Thread: Coats & Clark; Printer: Canon Pro-100; Photo paper: Canon; Die cut machine: Silhouette Cameo 3