That's Life: Grateful...

Hello friends...

Hope you've all had a wonderful weekend and you're ready for another week of inspiration on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog. This week our challenge theme is; THANKS/THANKSGIVING and we would love for you to join us and play along.

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, I chose to not to go down the traditional route of the occasion but to create a card that is from the heart, a make to show how grateful I am for all the people that I have in my life, my family, my friends, and of course, everyone who visits my blog and social media profiles ~ you are all truly appreciated and I'm so very grateful for you all!

So let's get started, and I hope you enjoy how I created this card...

BASE LAYERS

To begin with I made a card blank from brown cardstock measuring 13.5 x 18.5cm.

For the base layers of this card, I used a piece of plain white card, and added one of the tape designs from the Butterfly Design Tape set around each of the four sides. I then machine stitched a border around the outside edge and matted the tape trim layer onto silver metallic kraft card before mounting it onto my card blank. My base layer is ready...

Now we move onto the next layer and the embossed background for my hearts.

For this I used the Tree Rings 3D Texture Fade, which is one of the new Christmas releases from Tim Holtz and Sizzix. I embossed a piece of Heavystock Kraft card and then inked the raised areas with Ground Espresso and Gathered Twigs to accentuate the embossing.

To form the gnarly edges around the panel, I used Crackle Paste which I applied with a palette knife. I allowed the paste to dry and the crackles to appear before lightly rubbing Gathered Twigs Distress Crayon over the top, blending the colour with a semi damp baby wipe, or you can use a damp finger.

I matted the embossed panel onto a piece of silver metallic kraft stash, followed by black kraft stash, both of which are sanded around the edges to create more of a rustic feel to the card.

HEARTS and ARROW

I used the Sizzix Lovestruck Colorize die by Tim Holtz to create my two hearts which form the focal point of this card.

To begin with I coloured my cardstock using the beautiful new colour member to the Distress family, Lumberjack Plaid.

I sprayed Distress Spray Stain onto four panels of cardstock, controlling the amount and applying various amounts of colour to each panel. This will create the shading needed to build your die cuts.

I then used the shades of Lumberjack Plaid coloured card and cut each piece to make the two hearts. Cut the small highlights that are layered over the tops of each heart from cream card, and ink each die cut piece around the edges with Antique Linen Distress Ink.

I inked the edges of each die cut piece using a combination of the Lumberjack Plaid, Black Soot Distress Ink and Walnut Stain Distress Ink, using less ink on each layer.

With all the dies cuts in front of me, I layered each piece over the top of the previous one to form my two hearts and finally added the cream coloured highlights on top.

Set the hearts to one side and moving onto the arrow. I cut the main piece, the shaft from black card, the arrow head from gold metallic card...

...and the feathery end, (there is a technical term for that section but it's easier to call it a feather, lol) from bronze metallic cardstock.

I assembled the arrow pieces and then attached them to my hearts, aligning them so that they look as if they're pierced through each one.

I attached the hearts and arrow to the card front, using foam pads and you can see the dimension this creates in the photo below.

WORD PLAQUE

Now for the wording plaque that sits beneath the hearts and for this I wanted to create a plaque that would look like tarnished metal.

I began by cutting the letters using the Sizzix Alphanumeric Bold Thinlits Dies from Tim Holtz. I cut one layer from silver metallic kraft card, and three layers from black card. I then layered each letter to form thicker letters that once attached, would stand proud from the plaque, finishing with the metallic one on top.

Attach the letters to a strip of gold metallic kraft stash and then I used Distress Paints to add the tarnish. I used a combination of Burnt Sienna Alchemy Paint from Prima and Black Soot Distress Paint.

Apply the paint in two separate layers, drying in between each and then before drying the finishing layer, I lightly wiped away the paint from the lettering. You will get some residue left, you don't want to wipe away all the paint.

Matt the plaque onto silver metallic kraft card, followed by a layer of the brown cardstock, each time leaving a border around the outside, and then using foam pads, I attached the plaque to my card.

HARDWARE HEADS

Finally, I painted six hardware heads with Lumberjack Plaid Distress Paint and once dry, I attached them to the corners of my card.

So, that's my card finished for this week's challenge. I hope you've enjoyed how I created it and all the techniques I've use, which can be used as inspiration for so many different occasions ~ Valentines, Birthday, Anniversary or just to say thank you ~ it's such a great set of products that I think combine so well.

As always, if you make anything, or if you've 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 and if sometimes I miss it ~ just keep nudging me!

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 next Monday at 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in and good luck....