Autumnal Banner Winner and Free Autumnal Tag Tutorial...

"Every leaf speaks bliss to me,

fluttering from the autumn tree."

~Emily Bronte~

Thank you to all who entered the banner give away. It was awesome to see so many familiar names as well as so many new ones. Thanks for giving me some great places to visit. I really and truly do appreciate the snippets of time you spend here and cherish each friendship. Thank you so much for your love and support. I wish I had a thousand banners to give away, one for each of you. To show my appreciation, I have posted a fun free Autumnal Tag Tutorial. I have included some fun techniques that I think you will enjoy.

Now, without further delay, the winner of the Autumnal Banner is...Nita Jo of Little Grey Gardens! Congratulations Nita Jo, you will find my email link on my upper side bar, please email me your mailing address and I will get your banner in the post on Monday!

AUTUMNAL TAG TUTORIAL:

MATERIALS:

Corn husk ~ can purchase in the international foods section of grocery store, for making tamales
Acrylic paints ~ autumn colors of your choice in primary or metallic. I used Delta Ceramcoat brand in Pumpkin, Tomato Spice, Burn Umber, Straw, Hunter Green and Apple Barrel brand Cinnamon Apple
Paint brush ~ I used a 3/4 inch flat wash brush
Old toothbrush
Small leaf punch ~ I used a small maple leaf punch by Family Treasures
Standard size manila shipping tag
Resting Child Image ~ wallet size
White card stock
Piece of wax paper
Brown Ink pad
Twig
Pinch of moss
Scrap of textured paper of your choice
Scrap of paper for back of tag
Hole Punch
Scrap of lace
8 inches of ribbon
Scrap of trim
12 inches of crepe paper streamer
Sewing needle
Scissor
Thread
Button or other embellishment of your choice
Glues ~ hot glue, matte gel medium or craft glue of your choice

INSTRUCTIONS:

*Print out the wallet size image below on white card stock and cut out.NOTE: To save the image to your computer, right click on image below to enlarge. Left click on the enlarged image and select "save image as", name your file and click save. Move image to printing program of your choice to print.*Place your shipping tag and one corn husk on a piece of wax paper to protect your work surface.*Using your flat wash brush dipped in water then in paint to water it down a bit, randomly brush bits of color onto the corn husk, brushing with the grain of the husk. (I used four colors, Pumpkin, Straw, Tomato Spice, and Burnt Umber)

*Rinse brush, dip in clean water, pick up a second color in the same manner and repeat process.*Repeat this step with as many colors as you wish to use. Your husk will look very random and streaky.Your corn husk should look like this:*Dip the tip of the bristles of an old toothbrush into clean water and blot out excess.*Dip toothbrush into burnt umber paint and swirl around to coat tips of bristles.*Flick your thumb across the brush to spatter brown flecks of paint across the entire corn husk.*Set aside husk to dry.*Dip dry paint brush into edge of puddle of Cinnamon Apple paint, barely getting paint on the tip, and blend in a little. Carefully pull the dry brush loaded with paint down the tag using a very light touch. Paint will look streaky.*Rinse brush, dry well, and repeat step using Straw paint.*Rinse brush, dry well, and repeat step using Hunter Green paint. Shade a little heavier around the edges of the tag with the Hunter Green paint. Set tag aside to dry.*Trim off printed image just below the little girls feet.*Cut a scrap of textured paper to the width of your tag and slightly larger than the height of the trimmed image to mat image.*Using brown ink pad, ink the edges of the image cutout, the textured paper, and the tag by rubbing the ink pad lightly over them.*Using your choice of craft glue, adhere textured paper to tag, leaving about 1/4 inch of the tag bottom showing. Adhere the image to the textured paper.* Cut scrap of your choice of paper the same size as the tag.*Using your choice of craft glue, adhere scrap paper to back of tag and punch out hole with hole punch.*Using needle and thread, gather one long side of 12 inch crepe paper streamer making a ruffle. Adjust ruffle to bottom of tag and glue in place, smoothing down ruffle and trimming if needed.*Glue scrap of trim around the top of the crepe paper ruffle going all the way around the tag. I left a little frayed edge on mine.*Embellish trim with a button or adornment of your choice.*Glue snippets of lace to tag as shown in photo below.*Embellish space between lace with a paper of your choice by gluing in place. I used the word "autumn" and its meaning from an old child's dictionary.*Glue twig to side of tag as shown and cover twig end with a pinch of moss glued in place.*Cut off jagged bottom edge of your painted corn husk.*Insert straight edge of corn husk into punch and punch out several leaves.*Arrange and glue clusters or single leaves to twig.

*Angle cut ends of 8 inch ribbon, pull both ends up through the hole in the tag from the back of the tag, slipping ends of ribbon through loop on back, and gently pulling tight.YOUR AUTUMNAL TAG IS COMPLETE!

TIP: You could scatter the small husk leaves on your holiday table like confetti. If you are going to make confetti, paint one side of the husk, allow to dry, then paint other side and dry before punching (OR) You can trace a life size leaves on the back, cutting them out, inking the edges with a brown ink pad, (optional)paint on vein lines with brown paint, and use them in your holiday decor. If the larger husk leaves want to curl, use spray glue and adhere them to card stock then cut out and place on table. I think I have a few more leaves up my sleeves so stay tuned! Enjoy!

Many Blessings,
Miss Sandy