Happy Fall, Y'all! A Bugaboo Stamps Tutorial (Tutor-y'all?)

Hello, fellow stamp lovers!  As part of my duties as a guest designer for Bugaboo Stamps, I have the honor of making a monthly tutorial.  This month, being in full Fall mode (it is officially Fall now, right?!?), I'm sharing a technique I like to use for embellishing leaves I use on cards and 3D projects.

First, I'll show you the finished card, then, I'll take you step-by-step through the process of embellishing the leaves.

This card uses the digi, Pumpkin Crow (only $1 in the shop!!!!):

Now, for my secret in creating this (hopefully) realistic looking leaves.

I make a bunch of these at a time because it is a bit time consuming.

Cut your leaves out however you prefer -- electronic cutter, with dies, whatever your preferred method is.  I happen to have a Sizzix die that cuts a bunch for me at once.  I ran it through twice to get all of them that I painted for this demo.  It's probably enough to get me through all Fall.  You'll also need watercolors of your choice  -- this can be watercolor pencils, crayons, actual watercolors, it doesn't matter.  I used watercolor crayons here.  

Here's a picture of my supplies:

You can see my pile of leaves and twigs that I'm going to paint.  I just cut them out of white card stock.  They are so small that they don't really warp, so I save my watercolor paper for larger projects. There's my watercolor crayons (I prefer Caran D'ache Neocolor II) in the colors I used on the leaves, a couple of brushes, a glass of water, and some liquid pearls to add some sheen to my leaves.  There's also a piece of glass on the bottom of it all.  That's my palette.

Now, let's get painting.  Here's my palette, and my first leaves, ready to paint:

I really like using this piece of glass for a palette.  I can scribble my crayon colors on it, and have my liquid pearls there ready to apply.  When I run short of a color, I scribble some more down.  When I'm ready to switch to another color palette, it cleans up quickly with a sanitary wipe.  

This can all be done with a water brush, but I prefer paint brushes because I keep my bush fairly dry.  I either pinch it dry with my fingers, or keep a towel in my lap, and dry it with that.  

OK!  First leaves -- painted.  After I apply the color, I put a THIN coat of Liquid Pearls on the top with water and a paint brush to give the leaves a nice sheen.  You can used this same technique with glitter glues like Stickles.  It looks really nice on snowflakes!

I start out with my lightest colors first so I don't need to change my water.  I work in the basement with no sink, so I don't want to have to keep running up and down the stairs.  Starting light and working to dark saves me steps.  

Here's all my painted and pearled foliage: 

Unfortunately, it's hard to see the pretty pearl sheen on the leaves in the pictures, but when you see the card in real life, it adds a very pretty touch.

Here's the card once more, then a few details about the card itself:

I colored the Pumpkin Crow with Lyra Rembrandt colored pencils.  It had been awhile since I broke out of the Copic mold, so I figured it was time! 

Papers and sentiment on this card are from We Are 3 Digital Shop. The sentiment is from the Itty Bitty Fall Sentiment set.   Papers are from the Thankful paper collection (pumpkins) and Birthday Bouquet.

I hope you visit the Catch the Bug blog often.  There is soooo much going on there!  Challenges, Oldies but Goodies, Humor Me Wednesday, New Releases, and of course, Freebie Friday! 

I'd like to enter this in the following challenges:
Always Fun Challenges -- ATG
Crafty Cardmakers -- Autumn Colors
Cutie Pie Challenge -- Shades of Autumn
MMM Challenge -- Fall Colors
D.L. Art -- September Linky party