Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Give Thanks Art

Thanksgiving will be here before you know it!  I love that Thanksgiving is a day for giving thanks for our many blessings.  So often we get caught up in the day to day, worrying about what we don't have rather than focusing on what God has blessed us with.  We may not have everything we want, but at least in my case, God always provides everything I need.  I created a little piece of art in honor of Thanksgiving that reminds me to give thanks.  I started with a paper mache box, scrapbook paper, paint, Mod Podge, and glitter.
After priming the box with gesso, I painted the inside gray and the outside cream to match the scrapbook paper I chose.  I traced the box on the back of the scrapbook paper, cut the paper, and Mod Podged it to the box.
I took the pumpkin I had gotten at Walmart before Halloween and painted it with a coat of Mod Podge.  I then put the pumpkin in a ziploc bag and covered it with glitter. 
The nice thing about the ziploc bag is that you can seal it when you have the pumpkin mostly covered and shake it to distribute the leftover glitter.  I saw this method on another blog (I can't remember which one.), and it works really well.
I then used a hot glue technique I learned when I was a teenager to create the text for the art.  I took wax paper, my glue gun, dish detergent, and printed out words to create 3D letters.
I placed the wax paper over the printed word and covered the wax paper with a thin layer of dish detergent mixed with a tiny bit of water.  I then traced the letter outline with my glue gun.
After the glue dried, I carefully pulled my letters off of the paper, and I had 3D letters to add to my box.
I painted the letters with Martha Stewart's pearl paint.
I glued them to the box with a small amount of hot glue.  I used some white fabric scraps to create a ruffle to go around the outside edge of the box to give the edge some dimension.  I hot glued the ruffle to the outside edge of the box.  I glued the glittery pumpkin and a flourish I cut with my Silhouette to the box, and I was finished!
Here is the front view of the art.
I love the pearly look of the letters.
I also love the color combo and the glittery pumpkin.
Let's remember between the rushing and cooking and eating and traveling and football on Thanksgiving to take time to give thanks for all our many blessings.  And let's try to have that become a habit for the other 364 days of the year!

17 comments:

  1. what a wonderful tutorial! thank you so much for sharing with us!!!! your pictures are awesome also!!! hugs...

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  2. I love the fabric you used and I've never seen this technique for making hot glue letters? Very cool!

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  3. Love these box crafts! Thanks for linking to Things I've Done Thursday!


    Melanie
    Sew Rugged @ bear rabbit bear
    bearrabbitbear.blogspot.com

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  4. Hi, Bethany

    I love this Thanksgiving box. Just lovely! Thanks you for stopping by my blog today. Appreciate your kinds words. .50 cents is a great price. I love it.

    Smile and have a great weekend.

    Vanessa

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  5. Oh what a great idea and result! Thanks for sharing at this week's BFF Open House!

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  6. Thank you so much for sharing your lovely art! The letter technique is just what I needed for my project!

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  7. Whoa, that letter technique is awesome! I've never seen that before! Glad you shared at Shine on Fridays! Hope to see you again this weekend.

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  8. This is so cute! I had no idea about the lettering trick. In fact I saw colored glue sticks the other day some place and didn't know what to use them for. Now I know! Thanks for linking it up to Latest and Greatest Friday!

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  9. This is so cute...I love the raised letters. I saw colored hot glue in Hobby Lobby but it cautioned about it's use in the glue gun. Having to run a stick of clear glue through it after using it. Thumbs down for that...Your idea is great...The possibilities are endless using your method....Great creativity and work.....Thanks for sharing it...

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  10. THANK YOU! I have been looking for 3D lettering tutorial all morning that didn't have to deal with puffy paint. You saved my day!

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  11. Thank you. This is crazy. Love it.

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  12. I tried glittering a pumpkin in a ziploc bag and it was a total fiasco! Love the raised letters though.

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  13. I love this art box! So beautiful. :)

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  14. Would nail polish work on the glue letters? Thanks

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  15. Is there any type of paint you would or would not use, would nail polish work just as well? Thanks

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  16. Great idea! I had not seen this before!!

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  17. Great project - love all the extra tips you gave us - thanks for sharing -

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