HIMCR - Thanksgiving/Thankful

Hi, all my crafty friends and family!!!

It's Saturday once again and do you know what that means?  That's right!  It means it's time for another amazing challenge over at Hiding In My Craft Room. This week the theme is "Thanksgiving" or "Thankful" . . . it can be any project representing what you are thankful for either by the word(s) "Thanksgiving", "Thankful" or "Thanks" or even by a picture of what you are thankful for.l  So get out your paper and glue and let's see what you can come up with

When I think of what I am thankful, it is really hard to decide on just one because I have been blessed with so many things.  But after going through some pictures to scrap, I knew I had to do a layout representing what I am most thankful for . . . being ALIVE!  As many of you know, I had been diagnosed with cancer when my daughter was only 3 weeks old and was give a 0-5% chance of making it.  Let alone making it to the 5-year cure mark.  And here I am 17 years later . . . cancer-free!!!

So with my picture in hand, I headed to my crafty space and got to work.  Here's what I came up with:

This layout has several meanings to me.  The broken resin frame pieces and torn papers represent how I was broken from the chemo but then put back together into something even better though my faith.  The color green represents to me new beginnings because this picture is one of my dd and I about one (1) month after I got done with chemo . . . we were playing horsey to the music on her little cassette player, which is the meaning of using musical notes and paper in the layout. The cut out word "BEAUTIFUL" for how I felt life was at that moment and how my family members saw me even though I did not look like my former self. There are other subtle meanings, but I won't go into all of them right now. :)

The first thing I did for this LO was create the background using gesso and Faber Castell gelato (in green).  I put a small amount of the gelato in water to make a watercolor like paint . . . and then applied it over the gesso that I had already applied to my paper and allowed some drips here and there.  Then I took scraps of paper and glued them down in various spots . . . then applied a bit more gesso to the edges to blend them with the background and a little more of my watered gelato.

Once everything was completely dry, I put the LO together by adhering my broken pieces of resin frame, putting flowers here and there, cutting one flower in half and putting part next to the photo, and adding some string (colored by the green gelato) to the flowers.  

I also added a rub-on "Treasure every day" above my photo and rhinestones in various places

I also  added a few more flowers that I colored with the gelatos and gesso.

When I was all done, I used Thickers for my title "Thankful". and splattered a bit more of of the watered gelato around the LO and then some black drawing ink. Voila!  I was done!

In a way this was a hard layout for me to do, but it was also a great one . . . both reasons is because it made/helped me remember a difficult, but happy time in my life.  One that I do't take for granted. 

Till the next time I'm up in the night.  Kathy

PS  Funny side-note --- Doing this layout also made me realize how when I love something, I keep it forever . . . can you believe I still have (and wear) those green PJs?   lol  What can I say? . . . they are so comfy!!!  Talk to you all later!!!