Autumn Wall Decor

More autumn themed crafts! Yay! This time I made something to go with my front door wreath! I was originally inspired by this pin from Pinterest (of course) and wanted to do a slightly different take. As usual, I made it more difficult than it had to be and took photos of my progress.

Here is the final product.

Faux autumn leaf wreath I made last year... from a pool noodle!

And here's how I made it.


I had bought an oval wooden plaque from Hobby Lobby long ago to make a paper collage portrait for my wedding. That never happened. I found the plaque in a pile of leather scraps and thought "AHAH! I will make a centerpiece for my wreath!" So I dug out autumn colored acrylic paint and literally slapped it on.

My husband saw this and said "Oh! It's a watermelon!" *sigh*

I didn't really care about covering the edges. Only the leaf would show anyway. Next I found a photo of a leaf on the internet that I liked and free-handed the outline and veins in pencil.

Then, I found some art masking fluid I bought long ago to do silhouette watercolor portraits. This is basically liquid latex.

If you ever use this stuff, NEVER use natural hair brushes! It'll ruin them! Grab those crappy plastic brushes you find in your child's watercolor set.

Shake up the masking fluid and just dip in your brush and paint where you DON'T want the spray paint to be (aka inside the leaf outline). The stuff goes on thin with an off white color and smells AWFUL (like stagnant canned cat food).

I painted it on pretty thick and let it dry overnight. It dries clear.

I got some off white/ivory satin spray paint and covered the front (I painted the back too, but this is optional if you're hanging this indoors.). I over sprayed which took FOREVER to dry. 

After letting it dry overnight, I gently picked at the middle of where the leaf was to pick off the dried masking fluid. It comes up pretty easily. Be careful since it can take off some paint where you didn't apply the masking fluid. I suggest using a gently rubbing motion to help get the stuff off.

This is how it looked after I took off the dried masking fluid. For awhile, I was rolling in anguish at another craft fail when my husband commented "Oh! It's a crooked leaf!" 

I dug around and found this stuff. An idea instantly popped in my head. I'll outline it in GOLD!

The enamel accent liner went on a little goopy since my hand was shaky that night. All in all, I am please with the result!

Here, you can see the slight relief and dimension the gold liner adds.

I sprayed some satin varnish to coat and protect it from the elements and stapled some bronze ribbon to the back.

And hooray! An autumn themed plaque to accent my autumn wreath! It grows on me every time I look at it. :)

So colorful! :)

Thanks for reading! Have an awesome Monday and week! :)