Gather Together - Deck the Halls

 

I wanted to make a quick last minute little decor piece for Thanksgiving using some of the new Christmas dies from Tim Holtz and Sizzix, namely the Deck the Halls die set.  You can make this in an afternoon if you have all the items on hand, or substitute for what you do have.

I started by lightly painting the large etcetera Cathedral window and the large Vignette Box with Hickory Smoke Distress Paint.

Once the paint was dry I used my finger to spread some Ranger Opaque Crackle Texture Paste on the surfaces of both.

You can see it was pretty messy and I had bits hanging off here and there.

I lightly sanded off the high bits and loose bits.

Then I sprayed both the Cathedral window and box with some Pumice Stone Distress paint.

Put a one inch layer of floral foam in the Vignette Box.

Hot glue the windows into the center of the foam.

Paint the foam with Distress Walnut Stain or any other brown paint.

Put some Texture Paste onto the Mini Foundations, then when dry add a little color with Distress Crayon.

Put some moss over the foam to cover it all. I got this cream colored moss from Hobby Lobby, but Spanish Moss or Green Moss would work just as well.

Grab some fall colored papers and sand them with 150 grit sand paper.

The spray them with some brown Distress Stain and water to age them.

I have to confess here that when I first saw this pinecone die in the Deck the Halls set, and didn't have the concept art, I thought it was corn. LOL! That's what gave me the idea for this project way back when.
Anyway, cut the pinecone/corn bases and criss cross bits out of the yellow paper. Then blot some Fired Brick Distress Marker here and there on the corn.

Follow the brick color with some Carved Pumpkin. Notice I'm not coloring the entire corn cob orange or red.

Lighty spray with some water and dry. This softens the color.

Attach the criss cross bits to the bases with Collage Medium and rub some Collage Medium over the top of the corn as well.

Cut the "corn husk" bit which is the side of the pine cone and looks like two little canoes, out of cram kraftstock. I get this cream craftstock from JoAnn's cardstock section. It is by Coordinations.
I also adhered the little stems to the corn cobs. The stems are actually for the berries, but they work great for this too.

Then to make them fit with my decor and the fell of this project, water down some Antique Linen Distress Paint and rub it onto each corn cob.

When the paint is dry, rub some Walnut Stain Distress Crayon onto the corn cobs to distress them.

Cut more husks from the greenery pieces that are attached to the holly pieces in the Deck the Halls dies set. There are some smaller bits to layer on these but I wanted to keep it simple so just cut them and aged them a little with some Distress Inks

Cut four of each of the garlands. Two the right way and two back wards. The reason for this is that you will attach the backwards one on the back of the right side one so that it is the same color on the front and back. I hope that makes sense.

Cut four bows and add a little watered down Antique Linen Paint on the bows and the garlands so they match the corn.

After I took this I changed my mind. I used two packages of pumpkins because I love them. Paint them all with a layer of Distress Antique Linen Paint and then wipe it off lightly.

Then just like above, scribble some Distress Crayon on the nonstick mat, wet it and brush it over the entire pumpkin. Then lightly wipe off.

Start decorating the Cathedral window and vignette box. I added one piece of "greenery" corn husk to each corn cob.

Put one of each garland on each side of the Cathedral window. the add the corn and bows.

I arranged the pumpkins so that they looked like they were just strewn around with no arrangement. Add some corn, branch punches, and leaf punches in among them as well.

I added the words Gather on the front and Together on the back in the new Classic Alphanumeric lowercase letters. The title for this piece is from a line from a Thanksgiving hymn "We Gather Together" and the first line says "We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing." It is from a Dutch hymn from the 16th century that we still sing today! I love that so much.

I tried to make this piece one that could be set in the center of a table or buffet or island.

If you look closely you can see that I added four Hardware Heads to each corner on both the front and back of the Vignette Box. To make it look like they were rusted, I put some texture paste on them, then colored the area where I was going to attach them with Distress Crayons. Once I secured them with Collage Medium, I colored the Texture Paste with the Distress Markers as well.

This was a quick, fun little project that I have been thinking about for months and it's a relief to have it out of my head and into real life.
Thanks for sticking with me. This was a long post.
If you have any questions, please contact me through the link in the column on the right. I can't reply to you on here.
I am always so grateful for your comments and support. They mean a great deal to me so thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Tami

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