Hello friends, I hope all is well. I am expecting 24 for dinner this year (largest group yet) and really wanted to ‘wow’ with decorations so I have been busy…. I will continually add to this post as I complete projects. First is the main centerpiece ~

 

This is how the basket started out. I wanted it to be more weathered and aged so I grabbed the best products for doing that Tim Holtz Distress products

I started by wetting the wood and spraying with Distress sprays in weathered wood, pumice stone, vintage photo and walnut stain. Walnut stain mainly in the back slates and where the staples were for dark depth.

after I used my heat tool to dry all the spray, I used my finger to randomly apply distress paint in weathered wood, pumice stone, vintage photo and walnut stain. As you can see mainly in the middle of the slates because that is where the most wear and tear would happen so it would naturally be lighter. I would also spritz with water to thin out areas if it was getting to thick with paint.

I then used Distress archival in black soot and ground espresso with the Bitty Grunge set of stamps by TH Stampers Anonymous CMS009.

I then rubbed direct from pad Oxides in antique linen and black soot, then misted with water to get the oxidation to happen. On the bottom only I did the same with black soot, to appear as though the basket had been sitting on the ground for a while.

I then cut limbs from the artificial floral items I had picked up from Micheal’s. I am not much of an arranger but wanted to keep the items full so the basket would be more of the focal point. Now for the table banners….

I used the foam stamps in type letter using antique linen on (dollar store) manilla folders using Thinlit tags. I stamped letters on both sides.

after I started inking them up, the letters were not showing up enough with just the paint (cuz it was cheap cardstock, I almost threw them away) so I decided to re stamp the letters with distress ink in picket fence and used purely white embossing powder by Lindy’s, then used my embossing gun.

the letters really popped after the edges were inked. I am really happy with the way they turned out and am glad I didn’t throw them out.

On the burlap I made a template then cut out my bunting pieces. I really wanted a deep color, so I spritzed the burlap with water than dabbed the oxide re-inker ink onto the burlap than saturated and made the ink run and soak in.

my table has two leaves, so on Thanksgiving I will stretch these out and they can be read from both sides of the table.

Now for the big banner …

I started by printing off a font I like, used graphite paper and transferred onto printed cardstock from the TH Dapper paper stack. I could have free handed the lettering but this made it stress free.

I then painted the letters in with Dina Wakely’s paint in cheddar. I ended up applying 2 coats.

I then machine stitched the letters onto the burlap using a cording foot and flipped the top over twine about a 1/2′ so it would hang.

I used pumpkin patch bigz die and tattered leaves bigz die on the ends to add a little bit of length.

For final details on the burlap I used cheddar paint with a blending tool through TH stencil THS002 and forest moss through Dylusions Stencil diamonds. I also used the cheddar blending tool around the edges of the cardstock to help the letters pop.

 

Tomorrow I will be adding the centerpiece for the additional table we will be setting up. It is dark a gloomy here in Mi right now and the pictures just are not turning out …