Autumn Birthday Card Made with Pressed Leaves stencil

Project:  birthday cards!

Making this November birthday card became a 2-part lesson learned!

I started with a greeting card blank, light modeling paste and an art spatula.  I applied the modeling paste thru my 6"x6" stencil Pressed Leaves, creating a thick, uneven application of paste.

My intention was to LIGHTLY go over the paste, once it had dried, with Pan Pastels.

I had done this before, with success.  Really.  In the first example below, I had used this method to make the leaves green.  (I used paint to make the buds pink.)

The above greeting card was created with my 6"x6" stencil Budding Branches.

The above greeting card was created with my 6"x6" stencil "Swatton Flowers Version 1"

But in making the autumn-themed card at the top of this post, I made Mistake Number 1, using a greeting card blank cut from a beautiful dark bronze cardstock; mind you, this usually results in stunning backgrounds, because the deep bronze is studded with tiny sparkles that glint happily! 

I have now learned, however, that this particular cardstock does not easily shed Pan Pastel once it's applied.  Especially not when the Pan Pastel is applied too thickly!   

Mistake Number 2 was to add way too much Pan Pastel, with the result that background and foreground both became one shade of orange!  In the second "oldies" example above, I didn't mind the foreground and background being similar in color.  But the orange-on-orange was a different story!  Ugh!

A tiny brush and green acrylic paint came to the rescue.  With them, I created a green background, so that the pressed leaves imprint became visible once again.  

My final touch was to add highlights with glitter glue.  You can see the glitter better by clicking on the top photo to enlarge it.