Horse Chestnut

Autumn seems to be coming early this year and some of the leaves started to turn before the end of August. So I'm sure it won't be very long before parks and footpaths are scattered with conkers, the nuts from the Horse Chestnut tree.

I love the colours of chestnut trees, both Horse and Sweet, in the autumn, although sadly in recent years some kind of disease means that many leaves go brown and withered without taking on their beautiful seasonal colours.

One of my favourite stamps, and one of the oldest in my collection, is this single Horse Chestnut leaf. It is so versatile, being a single leaf rather than a large stamp, and looks great in summer or autumn colours. It is so old that the lettering has worn off the side of the wood block, eroded away from hundreds of uses, so I can't tell you who originally made it.

Here I have made a background stripe of assorted inks, sponged and blended, then stamped the leaf over it in brown ink, adding a sentiment that I won last year in the Playground. I've stamped it again with Versamark ink on orange card and embossed it with a variegated brown embossing powder.

I am sharing this with
Allsorts challenge - Feels Like Autumn
Always Fun - Fall colours
Sweet Stampin - Your Favourite Stamp
Make My Monday - Autumn Colours
AAA  - Autumn Colours
 
Rubber Dance - Use your fave stamp

Creative with Stamps - leaves