Making a forest floor machine embroidery piece - part three

The fallen branch was a bit floppy, so I couched some wire along the lines of the sari ribbon to give it a bit more strength.  I used reasonably soft wire (copper and stuff I got at the hardware store for tying up plants) and it was still quite malleable.
It looked a bit strange just lying there so I decided to make a base for it.  As I have already said, I have taken quite a few pictures of leaf litter and they were my inspiration for the next part.
I used the technique I learnt at the Olga Walters workshop.  I wanted it to be fairly firm, so I used a piece of adhesive interfacing, some wool wadding and fabric on the back and on top of the wadding.

The four layers with Vliesofix exposed on the top layer.

I used Vliesofix on the top layer of fabric and then cut up vaguely leaf-shaped pieces of fabric and ironed them on.  I also had some novelty yarns that I included, just a tiny amount.

It turned out that I hadn't covered all the Vliesofix and some of the baking paper stuck to the background.  You would think I would learn!  Luckily, most the the paper that I just couldn't get off was around the edges.  I had intended to have little leaf-shapes sticking out, so I just cut off all the bits with paper too. As it turns out, I could have cut more off as I think my base is a bit too big for the branch. But so far I have not cut more off. I may when I get it back from being marked for the assignment. Or I may not.