12x12 Aspen Leaf Canvas

I've very excited about this canvas cause it's something thats been in my head and it came to fruition so smoothly it was almost scary. Several weeks back on one of my walks I stumbled across these perfect Aspen leaves, so of course I had to pick them up and take them home with me. Over time I toyed with different ideas in my head and this is kind of what came to mind. The background was going to be different, lighter, simpler. Then the other day I bought a really kewl coffee mug at Starbucks and they wrapped it in this fabulous tissue paper, and suddenly I knew exactly what I was going to do with it. I've used the tissue paper as part of my background, used a couple different colors of my Liquitex paints applied with just a rag and my fingers as usual, oh I think I may have snuck in a pallet knife in there
once or twice as well. The center piece is actually a 4x4 coaster that I used some Golden Molding paste mixed w/ my paint to give it texture. I wasn't happy at first with it so I sprayed some color wash sprays, rubbed a little of this and a little of that here and there until it turned out like I wanted it to. The leaf I had to seal since it is a real leaf. Then I gold leafed it w/ different colors of gold leaf and then covered the whole thing in Crystal Effects and added a smattering of gold tiny holeless mircrobeads. When I adhered the leaf to the center piece I didn't press it completely flat, the edges still stick up and I love the way it looks. I'm just very pleased with this piece all around!