Thanksgiving Gratitude

Hello friends and welcome to my new followers.  Thank you so much for stopping by today to see what I have made for the Funkie week of the Frilly and Funkie challenge.  Our host is Rebecca and her challenge is A Grateful Welcome.  She wants us to create a home decor piece that would be used to decorate our homes for Thanksgiving.  If you don't celebrate Thanksgiving, you can make any piece that would convey gratitude.  

I hope you will check out the wonderful projects on the Frilly and Funkie blog.  We are excited to welcome a super talented new design team member starting with us today - Nicole Wright from Canadian Nickel Scrap'n.

Inspired by several altered art pieces created recently by Wendy Vecchi, I took a trip to my local Hobby Lobby to see what I could find to alter.  I came across a long rectangular metal sign in the clearance aisle for $2 plus these galvanized metal letters also on clearance for $1.50 each.

The first thing I did was give the metal sign two coats of gesso to cover up the design and when dry, used Wendy's Basically Bricks stencil to randomly stencil patches of bricks with her white embossing paste.  I also adhered several pieces of torn book pages in random areas.  After that layer dried, I went over it all again with Wendy's Crackled embossing paste.  Letting that dry again, I swiped on Brushed Corduroy distress stain.  I had to rub it in with my finger as it sort of beaded up on the surface.  After that and also inspired by some of Wendy's recent work, I adhered Remnant Rubs from various packs on the background.

I love galvanized metal and actually sort of hated to cover it up, but I did and really like the way it came out.  I used an embossing ink dabber to create a surface that embossing powder would adhere to and embossed the letters with Wendy Vecchi Orange Blossom embossing powder, deliberately leaving gaps in the coverage so it looks worn.  I managed to adhere two Remnant Rubs on the letters but it was really tough.  First of all, they wouldn't stick to the embossing powder.  I think that was because the embossing powder is really not sticking dry well to the letters.  The embossing fluid I used made the surface very slippery and I think it is keeping the embossing powder from really locking onto the surface.  When I rubbed the Remnant Rub on over the EP, it pulled the EP right off.  So then I rubbed a clean space on the galvanized metal and I got one to stick.  For the second one, I rubbed off the embossing and actually used a file to rough up the surface and then it stuck fine.  Once the letters were ready, I adhered them to the backboard with Ranger's new double sided foam tape.  It gave them a nice dimension.

Once I had the backboard and the letters altered, it was time to decorate.  I love making fall leaves.  I cut a bunch with my Tattered Leaves die from white card stock and stamped them with various Wendy Vecchi background stamps using Jet Black archival ink.  I sponged them with a variety of distress inks using the mini ink blending tool.  Then I spritzed them with water, crinkled them up a bit and dried them with my heat tool.  Once dry, I sponged the edges and high points with Vintage Photo DI.  I cut a few white CS flowers with the Tattered Flowers decorative strip die and colored them with  some fall colors of distress ink.  I also cut several layers of crinoline and dyed them with Dried Marigold, Rusty Hinge and Wild Honey distress stains, crunched the all up and dried them with my heat tool.  I layered them together and topped them with a small pearly center from my shop, which I colored with a Copic marker.

It was finished off with two small gratitude banners - white CS stamped with a tiny print Wendy Vecchi stamp in black archival and then stamped with Orange Blossom and clear embossed.  

That wraps up another Frilly and Funkie challenge for this week.  I hope you will stop by Frilly and Funkie to see what the rest of the group has to spark your mojo.

 The products below were used to make this project and area available at The Funkie Junkie Boutique where Wendy Vecchi, Tim Holtz and most other name brand products are always 20% below MSRP.

Dina Wakley Media Mediums - White Gesso	Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste - White	Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Stencil - Basically Bricks	Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste - Crackle	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain - Brushed Corduroy
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Remnant Rubs Life Quotes	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Remnant Rubs Words	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Remnant Rubs Numbers	Ranger Adirondack Emboss It Dabber	Ranger Wendy Vecchi Embossing Powder - Orange Blossom
Sizzix Alterations Tim Holtz Tattered Leaves Die	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Mowed Lawn	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Rusty Hinge	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Powder - Scattered Straw	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Barn Door
Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Peeled Paint	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Crushed Olive	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Mustard Seed	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Vintage Photo	Ranger Archival Ink - Jet Black Pad #3
Ranger Archival Ink - Jet Black	Stampers Anonymous Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Vintage Mesh Background Stamp	Stampers Anonymous Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Stamps - Love to Make Art	Stampers Anonymous Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Stamps - Live and Make Art	Stampers Anonymous Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Stamps - It′s All About Art
Stampers Anonymous Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Stamps - Believe in Art	Sizzix Alterations Decorative Strip Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers Die	$23.95 Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Hashtags	Ranger Wendy Vecchi Archival Ink - Orange Blossom	Ranger Embossing Powder - Clear - Super Fine Detail