Thankful Hearts

How could I not play in the Dirty Dozen and Dirty Dozen Alumni monthly challenge?  Oh my goodness am I ever so excited to be in the presence of these fabulously talented stampers!

This month's challenge was to create some sort of table decor, or a hostess gift for Thanksgiving incorporating a heart into your project.  

I had picked up this beautifully boxed candle on a recent excursion to Target.  Its a pumpkin scented soy candle, so in addition to being beautifully packaged, it meets my green criteria (lead free wick!) Yahoo!!

I created a little bellyband to cover the label, adding a nestie diecut oval and scalloped border adding the "thankful" from Cornish Heritage Farms.  Then added a little felt flower petaloo love from My Favorite Things.  I stamped the little heart from Cornish Heritage Farms "Heartwarmers" set colored it with copics and then gave it some sine with stickles.  It is attached to a Cuttlebug Tiny tag die and then attached with some linen thread and a button. 

Glitter always looks so much better in person, it has totally befouled my photograph, in real life its so sparkly like a little ruby gem! The whole box is tied up in some pumpkin and chocolate ribbon.  

However, the more I looked at this project, I felt like the heart was really just tucked onto there, and not integral to the design. And, being the

 over-achiever I am, I had to try again.

I still had plenty of this October Afternoon paper leftover, and I had just received my order from Just Rite Stamps of the Brayton font as well as the rectangular stamper.  What a great excuse to put them to work!!  

Following Sharon's Tutorial on Rubber Stamp Conditioning, I cleaned and sanded the stamp surface to really condition that rubber to take to the ink.  I zig zag stitched all my edges on the card for a really homey feeling and then added a Cosmo Cricket chipboard heart shaped button finished off with a felt flower and button from Making Memories.  Although I loved the altered candle, I thought in the end, that this project was really more reflective of the Thankful Hearts challenge.

Thanks so much to Sharon Harnist for hostessing this challenge - please be sure to check the Splitcoast Galleries with the keyword "DCTH1108" to see what all the other Dirty Girls and Alumni have to share today!