There Is Always Something To Be Thankful For....

Hello friend and Happy Monday...

Can you believe another week has flown by? Eek, this year has gone way too fast but as another Monday is upon us, it means that we have a brand new challenge starting on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog and this week the DT are showcasing AALL & Create products within their project and combining it with our theme which is all about saying THANK YOU or celebrating THANKSGIVING!

For my project, I made a Thanksgiving card especially for all my friends and followers because you are all very special to me and mean the world and this is my way of just saying thank you for all your love and support!

So let's begin and here's how I created my Thanksgiving card...

I started my creating a base card of brown pearlised card to measure 20 x 17cm ~ yep, it's a large card but I think by now you know I'm known for my larger sized cards! I began with my background, cutting a panel of Mixed Media Heavystock card to measure 18 x15cm and then to add a base of colour, I used Distress Inks ~ Old Paper, Antique Linen, Iced Spruce and Frayed Burlap all applied to my glass mat and spritzed with water before dragging the card panel through the inks to pick up the colour. After heat drying the card I then added some Tissue Tape from my stash and applied a layer of Matte Collage Medium over the top. Once the medium was dry, I stamped some text using the text stamp from the Tiny Mushrooms set and then started to create the texture and used my palette knife to scrape some Crackle Paste directly onto the card panel. Allow for the paste to dry and the crackles to appear and then I used Grit Paste applied through the AALL & Create Ice Cracks stencil and concentrating on the central area of the card.

Once the paste was dry, I then added some more colour to accentuate the pasted areas, again concentrating on the central section of the background panel. For this I used Oxide Sprays ~ Iced Spruce, Pumice Stone and Distress Spray Stains, adding a touch of Black Soot and some Vintage Photo. I sprayed each stain onto the background and just allowed the colours to run and blend together. If any area is too dark and you need to remove the colour, just dab it away with a kitchen towel.

Once I was happy with the background I then machine stitched a border around the outside and matted it onto gold metallic kraft card, followed by some corrugated card before mounting the panels onto my card blank.

Moving onto the next stage ~ the cluster of leaves and for these I used a combination of Tim Holtz dies, the 3D Leaf Impresslits and Emboss Die, together with the Skeleton Leaves die all cut from Heavystock Mixed Media card that I coloured.

I used two colours of card, green and orange and the following inks are what I used to colour this to the exact autumnal shades:

Orange: A combination of Rusty Hinge and Spiced Marmalade Distress Oxide Sprays, Fossilized Amber Distress Spray Stain and Barn Door and Walnut Stain Distress Ink to ink the edges and the veins of each leaf.

Green: A combination of Peeled Paint and Crushed Olive Distress Oxide Sprays, Fossilized Amber and a hint of Walnut Stain Distress Spray Stain and Walnut Stain Distress Ink around the edges.

Once I had a good selection of leaves and inked the edges, I then arranged them onto my card.

I started by laying down an Ephemera piece that would sit behind the leaves and then added a twig from my garden before arranging the leaves with some moss placed in between the layers.

I then coloured some Mummy Cloth using Spiced Marmalade and Frayed Burlap Distress Spray Stains and once the cloth was dry, I cut small strips which I tucked into the arrangement.

To complete the arrangement, I added a pumpkin piece to the centre, with a touch of moss and a tiny cut twig that just stands proud from the middle of the pumpkin.

To add some more texture and detail to the background I stamped some detail in the top right hand corner using the Fig. stamp from the Tiny Toadstools set and added some light flicks of Black Soot Paint across the card surface, leaves included. I also added some Vintage Melange Pebbles around the arrangement.

In the bottom right hand corner, I then added a second Keepsake Ephemera piece, the Air Mail sticker using Matte Collage Medium to adhere it into place.

Finally, I needed my all important sentiment, Give Thanks and I used the Tim Holtz Alphanumeric Classic lower die set to cut each letter twice from Tonic Chestnut Pearlescent Card. I then layered them over the top of one another to create a thicker letter before attaching them to my card....

...which is the final detail to complete this week's project! I hope you love this card and have felt inspired by some of the techniques and details I've shown you to add texture and dimension to your projects!

Have fun creating your projects and don't forget, if you would like to see more inspiration from my talented teamies over on the challenge blog and every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in and good luck....

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today and hope to see you again soon, love Emma xxx

Recipe for project:

AALL & Create Products: Ice Cracks Stencil
Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous: Tiny Toadstools

Tim Holtz/Sizzix: Alphanumeric Classic Lower, Skeleton Leaves, 3D Leaf Impresslits Cut and Emboss Folder
Distress Paint: Black Soot
Distress Ink: Walnut Stain, Barn Door

Distress Spray Stain: Old Paper, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Fossilized Amber, Walnut Stain

Distress Oxide Sprays: Spiced Marmalade, Rusty Hinge, Crushed Olive, Peeled Paint

Idea-ology: Keepsakes Ephemera, Mummy cloth

Mediums: Matte Collage Medium, Grit Paste, Crackle Texture Paste
Surfaces: Metallic Kraft Stash, Chestnut Pearlescent Card, Mixed Media Heavystock Card
Prima Marketing Vintage Melange Pebbles
Tim Holtz Media Glass Mat

Heat Gun
Big Shot
Moss, corrugated card and Tim Holtz Tissue Tape from my own stash