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!