Thanksgiving is Getting Nearer!

Aloha, all!

     We're getting down to the wire when it comes to getting our Thanksgiving Cards ready to mail here on Hawaii's Big Island.  It takes an extra day for just about everything that gets mailed from here to get to anywhere on the U. S. mainland.  So I'm scrambling to try to get as many done as possible over the next couple of days.

     That's why I was happy to see that today's Divas Coffee Break Design Team challenge was a sketch challenge.  With a sketch, I can making a card of ANY theme!  And with the Autumn Spice Specialty Designer Papers right out in front of my on the craft room table, it was a given that it would serve as the basis for whatever I did today.

     I haven't used this particular sheet of paper (well, for this set, it's really card stock) much at all.  For one thing, it just contains Early Espresso, More Mustard, and Cajun Craze colors in it.  And I really like using some Old Olive with these fall colors.  But with the sketch with which I had to work, I could see the opportunity for adding some Old Olive in several places. 

     To begin, I stamped the Old Olive images on another piece of the card stock from this that just has the pale background color – almost a So Saffron, though perhaps closer to a Very Vanilla.  Whatever.  That's what I used.  The image is from the stamp set, Day of Gratitude, and it really stamped very well on this textured paper – I was pleasantly surprised!  After that, I punched some holes in the Cajun Craze strip in the middle of the design with the 1-1/4" Circle Punch, punched out the Old Olive stamped images with the 1" Circle Punch, and then put all the pieces together.  The Cajun Craze strip is layered up on a larger strip of Old Olive punched top and bottom with the Scallop Edge Punch, and I placed the 1" punched circles on the Old Olive layer with Stampin' Dimensionals.  But before I actually adhered them to the card stock, I decided I needed just a bit more texture for the circles, and added some Cajun Craze Brads.

     The final touch was the Happy Thanksgiving greeting from the Stamp Set, Teeny Tiny Wishes.  What a versatile stamp set!  I've been using it since it first came out and hardly ever put it away!  I made the layers for the greeting with a Word Window Punch (the stamped layer); the Modern Label Punch (the Old Olive Layer); and the coordinating die from the Sizzix Punch Windows set that goes with the Movers and Shapers die (the Cajun Craze Layer).

     Here's the sketch from the Divas!  If you'd like to try it out this week, be sure to upload a copy of your card on the Internet and then post a link to it on the Divas website!  We'd all love to see what you do.

     Have fun stamping for Thanksgiving!