Thanksgiving Wall Hanging

The new challenge at Frilly and Funkie starts today and Rebecca is our hostess and she is calling it A Grateful Welcome! Whether you celebrate the American holiday of Thanksgiving or your gratitude for the family, friends and sustenance in your life, create an invitation, table decor, decoration for a door or home decor item with gratitude or Thanksgiving theme in mind!

Thanksgiving is a celebration that really only takes place in Canada and the US.  Here in Canada we celebrate the second Monday in October so it was over when I created this piece but I will pack it away to hang up next year.

My inspiration was the vintage turkey that I found online.  I started with a 6" x 8" piece of mat board and after my husband drilled the holes for me, I gave it a coat of Gesso.  Next I used some texture paste through the Wendy Vecchi Checkmate Stencil on opposite corners.  The next step was to sponge on some Wild Honey Distress Ink and then a bit of Dandelion Archival Ink.

Next I used my Cuttlebug to cut the large leaves using the Tim Holtz Tattered Leaves die and some scraps of Pion paper from the Grandma's Schoolbook pack as well as scraps of Color Core card stock and set them aside.  I used one of the oak leaves as a mask and inked over it in random spots with some Orange Blossom Archival Ink.  The last step for the background was to use Coffee Archival Ink through a TCW Chicken Wire stencil.

The tattered leaves got some inking on the edge with Rusty Hinge and Forest Moss Distress Ink and then I used some Coffee Archival Ink and Wendy's Vintage Wallpaper stamp to give them more interest.  I ran the red leaves through the Tim Holtz Bubbles Texture Fade and then inked the edges with some Aged Magohany DI.  Before I added the leaves to the background I cut some gold mesh ribbon in half and added a couple of sections.  Next came the turkey that I also fussy cut.

The butterflies were stamped from a Stampabilities set I picked up on clearance and then I inked them with some Orange Blossom and Red Geranium Archival ink and fussy cut them.  I added some wire for the antenna and some pearls from the dollar store for bodies.

The corn stalks are made from rafia that I found during my craft room re-organization a couple weeks ago.  I glued a couple layers together, tied it in the middle with another piece of rafia and then fringed the top and added some Antique Linen and Walnut Stain DI.

The pumpkin was hand cut and then parts were cut again and the edges were inked with some Walnut Stain DI before they were added to give the pumpkin a bit of dimension.  I made the apple basket from some scraps of kraft card stock and inked all the slats with Walnut Stain DI.  The apples are card candy and I indented one edge, added a teeny stem and then inked the apples with Aged Mahogany DI and the stems with Forest Moss DI.

The text was cut on my Cameo from Grunge Paper and inked with Forest Moss DI.  Finally I made the hanger by stringing some beads on head pins and eye pins and added them to some chain with jump rings.

I am going to enter this in the following challenges:

Cards and More - Leaves
Cuttlebug Mania - Use Leaves
Love to Create - Anything Goes/Fall Colors
Stamp and Create - Fall/Autumn
Crazy Challenge - Autumn Gatherings

The following products used in the creation of this wall hanging came from the most wonderful online store, The Funkie Junkie Boutique: