Watercolor leaves - tutorial

I don't know why I never tried this before, but it all began when I was cleaning out old supplies that had accumulated over many years.  It started when I found my Peerless Watercolor Papers that had been sitting unused over many years.  Yesterday, I showed my first attempt at die-cutting leaves from watercolor paper, then coloring them.  I repeated the process and took some photos.

I gradually added color to the leaves with a waterbrush, picking up color from the watercolor papers and using a plastic lid for a palette.  I found they dry lighter, so I would allow them to dry then add more color.  All of that water flattened out the embossing, so I put the dry colored leaves back into the Spellbinders die and embossed them again.

The next step was to prepare a card background for the leaves.  Digging through my paper stash, I found some very old 'handmade' paper that is like mulberry paper, but heavier.  I measured the size needed and tore the paper, after wetting the line with my waterbrush.

I stamped the sentiment directly on the handmade paper, then added a frame and mounted it onto a cream card base.  Next, I added the leaves and acorn.