Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope your day is filled with yummy things, people you love, and lots and lots of gratitude.  Today will be tough for us, as it's the first holiday for our family without my brother-in-law.  But it will also be good to get that first holiday without him behind us.  And on this day of gratitude, I am so thankful that he was part of our lives, even if it wasn't for as long as we would have liked.  I will miss his smirking grin and dry humor at dinner today, though.

I thought that this card was quite appropriate today, as this card embodies Thanksgiving (at least to me!)  Before running the background of the card through my Big Shot with the Woodgrain embossing folder, I randomly stamped with the splatter stamp in the Gorgeous Grunge set.  I used Baked Brown Sugar ink on BBS card stock.  Next, I used the faux suede technique on the strips of Cajun Craze and Crushed Curry.

For the "thanks" in the center, I used the rock & roll technique with Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze, and Cherry Cobbler ink.  Beginning with the Curry, ink the entire stamp.  (But don't stamp on the paper yet!)  Next, roll the edges of the stamp in Cajun, making sure to pick up enough ink to go beyond the very edge of the stamp.  I will sometimes flip the stamp and put the ink to the stamp, rather than stamp to ink.  Finally, roll the edges in Cherry Cobbler.  Breathe on the stamp to moisten the ink, and stamp.  Cut out using Apothecary Accents Framelits, snipping off the right hand side with paper snips.

I topped the whole thing off by dyeing piece of Cotton Ribbon to match the Baked Brown Sugar card stock.  I simply filled an empty spritzer with rubbing alcohol, then added a few drops of ink refill.  I spritzed the ribbon until it was the desired shade.  I prefer this method, as it's not quite as messy as using an ink pad to dye ribbon.

Supplies
Stamps:  Seasonally Scattered, Gorgeous Grunge
Ink:  Baked Brown Sugar, Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze, Cherry Cobbler
Paper:  Baked Brown Sugar, Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla card stock
Accessories:  Big Shot, Apothecary Accents Framelits, Woodgrain Embossing Folder, Linen Thread, Cotton Ribbon, Paper Snips, Sponge

Seasonally Scattered

As I write this, it feels like fall is here.  So this is the perfect card to share today!  I debated long and hard as to whether or not I should get the set Seasonally Scattered.  I loved it, but hey, I have to stick to a budget.  I finally decided to go ahead and bite the bullet, and I just love this set.  It's great because the three stamps can be used for three different holidays, but for so much more.  The sentiments of thanks and love are useful all year!  Stay tuned, because I'll be posting some additional samples soon!

Tips & Tricks

• Who doesn't love heat embossing?  There's just something about watching that powder turn into a shiny smooth surface when the heat tool goes to work.  I embossed the thanks image using clear embossing powder.  It looks white, but that's because I stamped on Very Vanilla card stock.  So it's not white, but the vanilla peeking through!

• Gather your favorite fall colors, and randomly sponge them over the image.  The ink will stick to the card stock, but not the embossing, allowing the embossed image to reappear.

• Want an easy way to add texture to a card?  (You know I love texture!) Just crumple up a piece of card stock, then choose one of two options:  either smooth it out and adhere, as I did with the Cajun Craze piece here, or crumple until the card stock begins to separate, and pull apart the two layers.  Adhere one layer to your card, "fuzzy" side up.  This is called faux suede, and it's a beautiful (and easy) technique to use!

Supplies
Stamps:  Seasonally Scattered
Ink:  Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Soft Suede, Old Olive, Versamark
Paper:  Soft Suede, Cajun Craze, and Very Vanilla card stock
Accessories:  Heat Tool, Clear embossing powder, Linen Thread, various buttons, sponge