Autumnal ATBs - by Alison

Hello all, Alison here with some Autumnal ATBs (and a very alliterative post title) for you today.  We're pretty picture-heavy, so grab a coffee and carry on!

One of my (pleasurable) problems with the Craft Parts is I'm always torn between altering them and not altering them.  There are so many options for altering, and it's great fun, and they look fantastic... but then they also look so beautiful "naked" too.

With this project I think I've found a medium which gives me some of the best of both worlds - pastels (I used my Pan Pastels, but I would think any sort would work).  By shading only partially, you get the colour but you can also keep some of the natural earthiness of the Craft Parts surface too.

I've used a complete set of all three sizes of the Plain ATBs (they also come with various apertures) and a just some of the wide range of glorious Leaf & Twig Shapes, and Fungi & Mushroom Shapes to create my autumn tower.

Putting the ATBs together is made very easy by the labelling and letters engraved onto the inside surfaces - just match them up and glue.

There's some full-on altering on the ATBs themselves.  I've used the DecoArt Americana Chalky Finish paints and crackle medium.  The base coat is a combination of Relic and Rustic, then I applied the crackle glaze - quite thickly so that I would get a good chunky crackle with lots of texture - and then some of the warm-white Lace colour over that once it was dry.

I shaded an autumnal sky downwards on each side using various pastels, and an earthy mulch upwards, leaving some white space available to give a cool light to the autumn day.

I combined more greens, browns and purples onto the leaves, starting with one colour...

... and building up the layers until I liked the look of them.

And, as I said, I tried to make sure I didn't "colour" the whole piece each time, so that there would still be some "naked" Craft Part visible too.  It's such a lovely warm brown that it doesn't need covering up.

Since the leaves come in all sorts of sizes, you can get them to fit every size of ATB (or layout or card or tag, or whatever project you're working on).

The large ATB is 10x10x10cm, and so I've used the larger sizes - the Sugar Maple Leaf & Twig in large...

... the large version of the Mushrooms Style 9 (this little clump of fungi puts in an appearance in all three sizes)...

... the large Red Oak Leaf & Twig...

... and the Maple Leaf & Twig.  Since most of these are about 12cm at their largest point in the large size, they extend over the edges of the ATB in a way that really pleases me, but meant I had to be a bit careful about juggling them so that the ATBs could still stack properly.

The Ivy Leaf Garland puts in an appearance in its small, medium and large versions, draped across the top of each ATB.  There's also an Extra Large which, at 15cm, is too big for my ATBs but would be brilliant for a layout or large journal page.

The medium ATB (7.5x7.5x7.5cm) has the Maple Leaf & Twig,

the Red Oak Leaf & Twig,

and the Mushrooms Style 9 again all in medium size...

... but also has the Chestnut Leaf & Twig for a bit of variation.

And on the smallest ATB (5x5x5cm) you can see the Mushrooms,

the Sugar Maple Leaf & Twig,

the Chestnut Leaf & Twig...

... and, to ring the changes just a little once again, the Pin Oak Leaf & Twig all in the smallest size.

Some tiny pine cones sit on the very top (having just tumbled off the tree and landed serendipitously!).

And I added some words (of course) to tickle the brain and heart into action as you revolve the tower.

I'm not going to lie... this creation makes me very happy!

I hope you like it too.  (If you love these leaves and fungi as much as I do, you may want to hop over and go shopping - no problem, just click on the links in the text!)  Thanks so much for stopping by today and I'll see you again soon.

Alison xx
Words and Pictures