Gratitude Card

By: Christine Candora-Hickey, Artistic Guide

Finished card size: 4.5" x 6.5"

Supplies:
Stamps:
Pumpkin Patch (Great Impressions)
Time of Gratitude (Hero Arts)
Words: family, celebrate, thanks, together (Stampin' Up!)
Paper:
Speckled cream cardstock (Stampin' Up!)
Mustard cardstock (Bazzill)
Rust cardstock (Paper Source)
Tan cardstock (unknown)
Chocolate mulberry paper (PSX)
Ink:
Black Memories permanent ink pad (Stewart Superior)
Coffee Archival ink pad (Ranger)
Garden Green dye ink pad (Close to My Heart)
Other:
Sweet Apricot Radiant Pearls (Angelwings Enterprises)
Bitter Apple Radiant Pearls (Angelwings Enterprises)
Candy Apple Radiant Pearls (Angelwings Enterprises)
Fine-tipped brush
Glue stick (UHU)
Paper trimmer (Fiskars)
1/16" hole punch
Maple leaf brads (unknown)
Corner enhancer (K & Company)
Stitched resin sticker (K & Company)
Bone folder

Directions:

1. Stamp the pumpkin patch image onto the cream speckled cardstock using the coffee ink.  Color in image using the fine-tipped paint brush to apply the Radiant Pearls.  {My quick tip for shading: apply a thin layer, let dry, go back in along the lines of the image with a thicker layer).
2. Once the painted image has dried, trim with a paper trimmer.  I trimmed my main image at an angle to add interest.
3. Adhere the stamped and painted image to a piece of chocolate mulberry paper.  Tear around edges close to the stamped image.  Set aside.
4. Take the mustard cardstock and stamp with random words that remind you of family and Thanksgiving.  I have a set of small words that are perfect for this.  A background stamp would also do the trick.  Stamp your words onto the mustard cardstock using green ink.  Set aside.
5. On the tan strip of cardstock, stamp the wavy sentiment "a time of gratitude".  Stamp this in black permanent ink.  Set aside.
6. Construct your card.  For added interest, I used two separate pieces of cardstock - rust and mustard.  The mustard panel is larger so it can be seen beyond the card.  Score the left side of the rust cardstock at about 1/4".  Adhere the scored section only to the mustard cardstock. This creates a hinge, of sorts, for your card to swing open. 

   

7. Adhere the resin stitched sticker to the spine of the card that you just created.
8. Begin building the layers: Adhere the word stamped panel to the left side of the card front.  Adhere the pumpkin patch panel on top of this, situated to the right of the panel.  Adhere the tan wavy sentiment panel to the bottom so that it overlaps both the pumpkin patch panel and the word panel.
9. Use the 1/16" hole punch to punch a hole at either side of the wavy sentiment panel.  Insert maple leaf brads at these two points.
10. Finish the card by applying a corner enhancer.  A little glob of glue stick on the back should do the trick as far as adhering it to the cardstock.  Apply the enhancer to the corner of the pumpkin patch panel.

    

11. Make sure you sign the back of your card!  It's a work of art and is ready to express your thoughts on the Thanksgiving season!