Gratitude and Thanksgiving wishes for you! {CD86}

 

Hi all, can you believe it's the day before Thanksgiving?  Where has this year gone?  Well, it's Wednesday and that means another challenge at the Color Dare {86}: Pumpkin Pie, Cajun Craze, Wild Wasabi and Baja Breeze.  Wow, at first glance, I thought "what am I going to do with that?!"  Then, I saw this fabulous wreath over on my friend LeAnne's blog and I knew I wanted to try my hand at it too.  Using the lid of a small storage jar, I lightly traced a circle in pencil onto my Naturals White cardstock.  The storage jar lid was handy but you could also use a punched circle as a template.  The circle is about 1 3/4".  The circle helped me line up the leaves, branches and twigs of my wreath to create an [almost] uniform circle instead of the ellipse I got the first time I tried it without tracing a circle! :-)

I stamped the small leaf from Autumn Days in Wild Wasabi leaving a little space between each one.  Next, I stamped the same leaf in Pumpkin Pie and followed up with Baja Breeze leaves.  I really like how the BB looks next to the PP & WW!  Lastly, the twig branch was stamped in Cajun Craze randomly around the circle.  A little Pumpkin Pie 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, secured with a glue dot, added a little dimension to the wreath.  As always, the hardest part was figuring out the pattern of leaves and colors--there were a few samples in the trash before I settled on "the one".

 

The color combination was looking so pretty (thanks Riley!) that I wanted to dress up the inside too.  I tried acrylic block stamping in Baja Breeze and I love the effect.  Just put your acrylic block directly on the ink pad and then stamp on your paper.  It gives a great background element.  Here, I used SU's block "D" and stamped off once before stamping the Baja Breeze onto the Naturals White cardstock.  I have tried this was some non-SU acrylic blocks (while I was waiting for the UPS man to bring my order with the blocks!) and I have to say that the SU blocks are better for this technique because the edges are rounded and give a soft stamped edge.  Other blocks have a right angle edge which gives a sharp hard edge to your stamped image.  Anyway....the wonderful Thanksgiving sentiment from Seasonal Sentiments, was overstamped in Cajun Craze with the other colors, Pumpkin Pie & Wild Wasabi, coming in on the leaf and branch from Autumn Days.

I wish I could send this card to all of you, dear blog readers and friends.  Your comments and well wishes keep me going and push me to be more creative with each post.  Since I can't mail one to all of you, this post is dedicated to you--thank you!  Whether you are celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow or not, here's to you and a wonderful weekend ahead with friends and family...cheers!

supplies:
stamps: autumn days; seasonal sentiments, woodgrain bg, thankful for

ink: cajun craze, wild wasabi, pumpkin pie, baja breeze

paper: cajun craze, wild wasabi, naturals white CS

xtras: dotted scallop ribbon border punch; pumpkin pie 1/4" grosgrain ribbon; acrylic block D