That's Life: Give Thanks ~ Life Is Full of Beauty

Hello friends and Happy Monday!

Hope you all had a great weekend and you are all inspired by the brand new Tim Holtz Mini Trimmer by Tonic Studios that Tim launched on Saturday in his latest YouTube Live! I have to admit, this is just so cute, and a very welcome addition to my craft room...it's definitely a game changer for me, as it will sit on my desk for all those tiny projects and tiny pieces of paper that I need to cut but are really too small to cut in it's larger family member! If you haven't made your purchase yet, then you definitely need to add this to your stash!

But back to today and this week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge! The theme is all about THANKS/THANKSGIVING and the DT have created some awesome projects to inspire you and we hope you'll come and join us and play along!

For my make, I created a tag and packed it full of woodland magic, including a familiar little feathered friend who you might remember from debut last week, and has now made his return and flown in to make an appearance on this project! I couldn't resist using Woody the Woodpecker one more time, he's just too adorable for words!

So let's get started and here's how I created this piece...

I'll start with the tag and using a Size 8 Mixed Media tag from Tim, I began by applying Opaque Grit Paste with a palette knife, through the Rosette Mini Layering Stencil from Set 30. After removing the stencil, I allowed for it to dry and set and once that magic has happened, I started to apply the colour.

For this I used Distress Spray Stains and Oxide Sprays: Prize Ribbon, Ground Espresso, Speckled Egg and Speckled Egg Oxide Spray and just spritzed these over the pasted tag, allowing the colours to blend by misting a little water over the top.

Once the sprays had completely dried, I machine stitched a border around the edge and then adhered it to a Size 8 Etcetera Tag using Matte Collage Medium.

Moving onto the next stage and the word plaque ~ I used the Sizzix Seal Dies and Switchlits Embossing Folder to cut metallic kraft card which will make my base. I dry brushed the metal seal with a little Black Soot Distress Paint and then wiped away the excess, allowing the paint to sit in the embossed areas and accentuate the beading around the edge. I then cut a smaller circle from Distress Woodgrain Cardstock and very lightly I brushed Speckled Egg Distress Paint over the surface before drying the paint, and then inking over the top with Walnut Stain Distress Ink, to bring out that gorgeous woodgrain texture.

I then cut my wording, "Give Thanks" using the Tiny Type Upper Thinlits Die set, cutting one set of lettering from gold metallic kraft card and a second set from Blackout Cardstock. I then layered the black lettering over the gold, slightly offsetting the darker lettering to create a shadow underneath before attaching each letter onto my seal.

Once completed, I attached my seal to my tag using foam pads before adding Hardware Heads around the outside of the seal, altering the metal with a little Crackling Campfire, Antiqued Bronze and Black Soot Distress Paint to create a rusty finish.

Moving onto the scene and for this I started by creating my leaves...

I used both the Oak Leaf, and the Leaf Impresslit Emboss and Cut 3D Dies to cut Mixed Media Card that I had coloured using Crackling Campfire, Walnut Stain, Aged Mahogany, Spiced Marmalade and Fired Brick Distress Spray Stains and this is where the brand new Mini Trimmer from Tim comes into play because it is perfect for cutting all those tiny panels of card that fit inside the folders ready to cut and emboss!

With a selection of the smaller leaves cut, I inked the edges of each of them before lightly spritzing some of Tim's gorgeous Jack O'Lantern and Flickering Candle Halloween Mica Sprays over the top. These are now sold out, so if you don't own them, it's not necessary to use these but it just creates a beautiful shimmer and sheen to the cardstock.

Once the leaves are dry, I prepped my toadstools which are part of the idea-ology range. I used the smallest and middle sized toadstools and painted the caps with Candied Apple Distress Paint.

Once this was dry, I then added the tiny white dots with Picket Fence Distress Paint.

The final part of the scene is Woody the Woodpecker and he comes from the Cozy Winter Thinlits Die set and you can see how I make him and colour him in my previous post, HERE.

Now all my bits and pieces are ready to make the scene which are all attached to an Etcetera Trim.

I used two of the smallest Scalloped Etcetera Trims and after applying some crackle paste to each trim, and allowing this to dry, I attached the trim to form a ledge. I then attached all my leaves, the woodpecker and the toadstools to the ledge, using hot glue to hold them securely in place and adding small clumps of moss between the leaves and around the base of the toadstools.

To complete the scene, I added some small pieces of curly moss that you can buy from any florists or good craft store and attached these and some die cut leafy foliage that I had left on my desk from a previous project.

In the photo below you can see the dimension I've created in this make...

So all that's left is those little finishing touches and beneath the ledge I added a drawer pull, and placed a Clippings Sticker in the little window to read, Life Is Full of Beauty! I added the smaller sized Hardware Heads onto either side of the pull so it appears to me fixed onto the tag with screws.

Finally I attached a Machinery Head at the top of the tag, attaching it over the hole and again, I altered this with the same colours of Distress Paint as before to create more of a rusty look to the metal.

So that's it from me for today and I hope you've loved seeing Woody the Woodpecker in his little autumn habitat, I think he definitely looks as if he's settling into life amongst the woodland magic....

...as always, if you make anything, or been inspired by anything that you've seen here on my blog ~ then please, let me know by tagging me on social media or leaving a comment here and I will be right over to take a look!

Don't forget that every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $25 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp and you can join in up to 5 times, which means you could have 5 chances to win. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in and good luck....