Forest Feast
Slider Card/Shaker Card
This card not only features adorable forest creatures feasting on Thanksgiving dinner but's its also a shaker card and a slider card all in one!
So let's just back up to Thanksgiving here for a minute...
Before I get to the creation of this card I would just like to say
"Happy Thanksgiving to my American Friends"
I wish you all a blessed day filled with warmth, laughter and great food!
As a Canadian I don't know a lot about the American Thanksgiving other than what I've seen on the Hallmark movies, and the realization that Black Friday falls on the Friday after.
However, I can't image that it is all that different than the Canadian celebration in that we are thankful for our many blessings as we gather together with family and friends to enjoy an overload of turkey and amazing side dishes.
Now, traditionally in my life the sides have always included stuffing(dressing), mashed potatoes, gravy, carrots, turnip, squash that type of thing. Yet I see all of these amazing recipes that revolve around the American Thanksgiving in an assortment of fascinating entrees like sweet potatoes and macaroni and cheese. So what's up with this?
Can anyone fill me in... I'm somewhat fascinated.
I love to cook and I like to experiment with a different kind of stuffing each year and truth be told I would really like to add a new side dish to our table in the future, so please feel free to enlighten me on your traditions or food must haves. I would love to hear about it!
If you keep reading on you will find a funny little story in regards to how important the gravy is at our Thanksgiving table ⮟
Enough said... I like food, okay! 😉
Let's get back to this adorable card...
This card starts with a mash up of products, mostly from lawn fawn - however you could create something similar with products that you have hanging about in your craft space.
There was no plan when I made this, I just pulled a stamp set and some dies from my stash.
For the outside frame I used Meadow Backdrop. I cut 2 of these frames and just used my snips to cut out the 2nd layer of grassy hills. Leaving in both layers of the hills was not going to leave enough room for the rest of the content for the card front.
This die on it's own is incredibly cute and has what it takes as a background creator for many scenes using any of the adorable Lawn Fawn critters.
I cut just the tree section from the Leafy Tree Backdrop die. You could use a tree from any die since I only cut the tree from this die because it was at my fingertips when grabbing the other die off the shelf. However here's a look at that die set - just so you can see it. It includes the tree built into the frame as well as a hill, and leaves of 2 types. Again, another great scene builder for any of the the Lawn Fawn critters.
I just want to stress again at this point, you can use any scene builder stuff that you already have in your stash. These are simply just the items I used, because I already had them.
The stamp set is called Forest Feast and so incredibly cute. It comes with 3 little creatures - a raccoon, a hedgehog, and a squirrel. If you are familiar with Lawn Fawn stamps then you know there are a ton of little characters that you could add to your scene.
This stamp set also features a large tree stump to be used as a table, along with bowls of food, pie and several other cute little items to complete your Thanksgiving scene.
And... don't forget the gravy!!! (keep reading to the end to find out about the gravy).
Obviously at this point, I stamped and colored the characters, food items, the stump, a mushroom and the little pilgrim hat and then cut them out. I am lucky enough to have the Lawn Cuts Forest Feast Dies however they aren't necessary you could just fussy cut them.
I glued all of my frames together, including the tree and then glued a 4 1/8 x 5 3/8 piece of window sheet to the back of the frame to begin the shaker card process.
I arranged my scene on the front of a card base cut at 4 1/4 x 11, scored at 5 1/2.
I blended just a bit of Catherine Pooler's By the Lake Ink onto the background.
Just enough to add a slight hint of color, nothing extreme.
I did a bit of a dress rehearsal with the pieces and figured out exactly where I needed what to be and then adhered the items
*** Not the tree stump or the gravy boat
to the card front.
I added some of the Lovely Leaves Sequins from Sweet November Stamps in a small pile on the card front section.
I also glued a few of the leaves from the sequins to the background so they appeared to be just floating about with the shaker sequins.
These sequins are so beautiful. Check out the actual leaves in the mixture.
I applied Foam Tape around the edges of window sheet on the frame as well as along the edge of the hillside, since the sequins don't need to be below this section. I peeled the paper backing off the foam tape and adhered this frame section on top of the card front.
Shaker card part of the card complete!!
Back to the tree stump... I actually cut 2 of these. The one that was stamped and then just one from another layer of cardstock to ensure the stump was sturdy enough for the slider mechanism. After the 2 layers were adhered together, I discovered that the old faithful dies that I have to create slider tracks were going to be to big to create a slider on the top of this tree trunk so I had to think outside the box a bit.
I used a die from Lawn Cuts Ice on Mice.
(stick around for a shaker card featuring this set)
There is a little die in this set that is normally used to die cut one of the skate marks.
It's sort of a stretched out "S" shape. Just the perfect wave shape for a slider card and fortunately just the perfect size for the top of this tree stump.
So I placed this die on top of the tree stump and ran it through my die cutting machine for a few trips to be sure it cut through both layers of cardstock.
Poof! A track for my slider feature.
Being that the gravy bowl is going to be the sliding element, that meant the slider mechanism was going to have be really small. I used a small scrap of window sheet cut at 1/2 inch x 3/4 of an inch and scored at 1/4, and 1/2 inch on the 3/4 side.
I had to really work at creasing these score lines given that it was window sheet I was working with, but it does work. I glued one of the 1/4 inch ends to the back of the gravy boat and slid this section through the slider slot. Then glued the other 1/4 inch end to a tiny square of cardstock ( no bigger than the gravy bowl). This scrap of cardstock should work as a stopper so that the gravy boat won't slide out of the track.
You may have smaller elements to create a slider card or simply just a better mechanism to tackle this task with, however I tend to use window sheet a lot for slider mechanisms.
Let me know if you have a better solution?!
Time to add some foam tape to the back of the tree stump. Be sure the foam tape doesn't get in the way of the slider mechanism's function, then adhere to the front of the card.
Stamp (pass the gravy) from the Forest Feast stamp set on a scrap of white cardstock as well as the Happy Thanksgiving sentiment and attach to the desired position on the card.
Add a few of the die cut leaves from the Leafy Background Die to the edges of the card frame.
Slider Card and Shaker Card Complete!!
Ok.. so now for the reason I decided to create this cute card or actually to even purchase the Forest Feast stamp set > It's all about the gravy!!
When I saw the pass the gravy sentiment and the little gravy bowl I just had to have this set.
My Thanksgiving table includes a fairly large gathering. I have seven kids, my daughter in laws, son in laws, and 14 grandchildren... each and every one of them absolutely amazing!
We are a fairly cheery bunch. We live in a rural area in Eastern Ontario that some would refer to as a redneck region. They call it redneck... we call it the ability to create your own fun, have a knowledge of the lands and how to survive and provide for your family, and a giant ability to love and show compassion for others. My sons all work in the trade sector and spend most of their lives on construction sites, and my daughters while not on construction sites have jobs in healthcare and other nooks of the working world but grew up with 5 boys so just like a construction site...lol
We have certain terms of respect that apply in our home and all of the kids have been raised with the same rules - such as hats off at the table, no swearing in front of a lady or an elder, please and thank you and all the regular stuff. Basically act in a tactful manner.
Anywho... we talked earlier about the traditional dishes at my table of potatoes,
turkey and gravy...
Each big meal the kids and their families are responsible for key food items and it all gets cooked while we chat, laugh and referee the children. So this one year we ended up with ham and some of those Butterball boxed turkeys. Well I had never cooked one of those before, only a traditional turkey with all the bones and such that you stuff. So I cooked this turkey and was somewhat terrified of the remnants in the roaster behind the turkey, but we won't go there - I just know it wasn't anything I was making gravy with (I'm positive there is no way you could make gravy with that)!! So with the chaos of all the different types of food being cooked and the hub bub around our kitchen island there simply ended up being no gravy.
We sat down to eat, and I have one son who always makes his plate last. He's getting his food and suddenly says "where's the gravy?".
I replied and said "there is no gravy".
He replied "what?! What do you mean there is no F*&^* gravy?"
The look on his face was priceless!
I explained between laughter that I couldn't make gravy with that type of turkey.
His response " I don't care, not having gravy is just wrong - so you might as well just tell the kids there is no Santa Claus or Easter Bunny to.
If I'm not having any gravy then their not having any fun either"!!
My nearly 30 year old son at the time had the most adorable little pout on his face and looked like most certainly this no gravy thing was the end of the world, yet I couldn't help but laugh, and laugh, and laugh.
Now keep in mind the children couldn't hear any of this conversation, so no harm was done, but the hilarity of kept us roaring in laughter all day, except for Josh who had no gravy.
😆😆
Now a few days after this extremely hilarious gravy less dinner I finally had a chance to catch up with a good friend of mine and he asks how Thanksgiving dinner was and I told
him it was great, everyone was home and it was a great time.
He says "really? Because I heard you had no gravy"!!
I burst out laughing and thought - how does he know we didn't have any gravy?
Another day or so goes by and I'm talking to my girlfriend and she mentions that I didn't have any gravy at Thanksgiving Dinner!! At this point I'm thinking how does everyone know about this gravy. Was it such a big event that it was in the local paper and I missed it?
I never did find out how everyone knew, I can only guess that it was such a significant
event that it was the talk of the town and to this day is still talked about as
the year Julie didn't serve gravy!!
It was never forgotten at our house, we laugh about it often, but heaven forbid I
certainly never served dinner with no gravy ever again!!
Besides... Josh comes with a stash of can turkey gravy to every meal, just in case. 😆
I hope you enjoyed today's card, and the story that was lacking gravy, most of all I hope everyone has an amazing Thanksgiving holiday, and that you all remain safe and loved.
Happy Thanksgiving!!
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