LET'S GIVE THANKS!

Let's give thanks to Anne Marie, who's in charge this week at The Paper Players and she's come up with a perfect theme for this time of year for our new challenge!

The Paper Players: PP665 - A Theme Challenge from Anne Marie

My take on Anne Marie's challenge is a basket full of thanks! I started with a wood-grained kraft cardstock as a card base. I used an ivory cardstock panel, die cut as a rectangular stitched panel that I stamped with an ancient stamp that I had never used before. I stamped it with PTI "Dark Chocolate" and "Americana" inks, punched a couple of holes, and pulled through and tied two strands of silk thread that I had colored with Copic markers. I stamped the basket from PTI's "Basket of Blessings" on kraft paper, colored it with Copic markers, and mounted it to the face of the ivory panel with dimensional foam. The final steps were to matt the ivory panel with rust cardstock and glue it to the wood grained card and add some rust-colored gems.   

If you haven't checked out The Paper Players Challenge blog yet, go and see what the ladies have prepared for your inspiration!

On a Personal Note: Four years ago I tried to retire, but one of my long-standing design clients asked me to stay on with him to complete an office park with three buildings next to the tenth fairway of a local golf course. The projects were interesting and varied and I told him I would help - as long as the spaces would be done only one at a time. Well, there was some overlap, but in the end, I completed design work on one speculative office space, one full building for a medical research lab, a financial planner's offices, and several spaces in a 4-story mixed use building in Ashland. Finally last Tuesday was the grand opening of a large medical spa that I've been working on for a full year and the completion signaled my agreement with myself to fully retire. So, as of the beginning of last week I am now officially retired! At 78 I think it is about time!