Crazy for Autumn Colour .....

....... that's our new challenge theme over at A Vintage Journey!

Hello and welcome to a brand new challenge where I am the host for the month. October is so very often a wonderful month for lots of wonderful colours and so we are looking for projects where you have chosen a bold, colourful, autumn palette for your vintage; shabby; mixed media; art journaling; industrial, timeworn or steampunk project. Let's see those wonderful autumn colours in all their glory!

We have had a wonderful Autumn here in the North and it only broke last week when the usual equinox gales hit us and totally destroyed the garden! Up until then I had some lovely shrub roses still flowering and the rosehips have been amazing - so many and such beautiful colours. I should have taken a photograph BEFORE the gales!

I decided to try and replicate some of these colours in a small shadow box made by Calico Craft Parts (who are our sponsors this month too).

I decided to make the box up before painting as I thought this might be easier. The outside was painted with PaperArtsy Fresco Very Berry Chalk Paint before adding DecoArt Weathered Wood.

While this was drying I selected an Autumn colour palette (including the sky!) to make a small "picture" to go in the back of the box.

The colours were blended onto the cardstock .......

.... spritzed with water .....

.... and the same colours picked up from my craft mat.

I then used stamps from the Tim Holtz Mini Bouquet stamp set to add the stems here and there.

I really love how this came out. I had the idea in my head but really wasn't sure whether it would work. I will certainly try this again, perhaps in my journal.

By this time I had crackled the outside of the box with white paint and added some text tissue around the insides which gives it all a shabby look. The box is quite deep so I felt it needed something in the mid ground, so added this little trellis flourish (also from Calico Craft Parts) which has just been coloured with a little white paint.

I wanted a big flourish on the right hand side of the box. Calico Craft Parts products are very sturdy and can take any amount of medium on them. The right hand side flourish shows how they arrive and the left hand side finished with a coat of Very Berry Fresco paint, white acrylic dabbed here and there and finally some DecoArt Crackle Glaze.

Having to sit with the new puppy in the kitchen just lately has given me lots of time to make flowers! I tried to replicate some of the wonderful colours of the flowering shrub roses before the gales, but kept to a similar colour palette for the berries.

I finished the box with a few alphabet letters (again from Calico Craft Parts).

Dreaming of Autumn Days!

I can certainly recommend this little shadow box - you can see how deep it is. It also comes with a perspex glass front which I haven't used and piece to go on the back so it can be hung. I find it stands on its own quite nicely and am so pleased I didn't hang my flourish and flowers any lower!

I hope this has inspired you to join us in our challenge this month. For some amazing inspiration from my fellow Creative Guides, do hop on over to the blog post for this challenge at A Vintage Journey.

Have a great weekend and happy crafting!

Jennie x

Here are links to the Calico Craft Parts I have used:

Birch Plywood Square Box Frame Kit

Flowering Vine Decorative Flourish

Scroll Trellis Corner Embellishment

Mini Copperplate Gothic Alphabet Letters