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We recently stayed with good friends in their home on our trip to NJ/NY.  I wasn't sure what sort of a thank you gift I could make to let them know how much we appreciated their hospitality.  We've been friends since 1987 and they're more like family than friends so they've had plenty of occasions when they've been recipients of my handiwork. 

I already knew I wanted to incorporate 'home' throughout my piece.  Fortunately over on the Simon Says Stamp & Show blog this week's theme was to use a word in your art.  Wendy's house stamp and sentiment fit the bill perfectly.  Their kitchen is Mustard Seed, Rusty Hinge, Peeled Paint and a bit of Chipped Sapphire.  How's that for an awesome color scheme!?!?!?

The off-white wire wall art was from Michaels clearance aisle last year.  It was completely unadorned.  No longer.  A strip of music paper (the family always has music on - rarely tv), a house (colored like their house), plenty of Wendy's flower stamps and leaves (we planted a garden together in their backyard before we left NJ), some Martha Stewart dark blue ribbon, a fragment and a key finish the gift.

Studio 490 stamp sets: Ticket To Art, Dimensional Rose Art, Make Mine Mini Art, Homemade Art, Live & Make Art

Ranger products:  Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain Distress Inks; Jet Black, Saffron, Monarch Orange, Sienna, French Ultramarine Archival Inks; Chipped Sapphire, Rusty Hinge, Weathered Wood, Peeled Paint, Walnut Stain, Scattered Straw Distress Inks

Tim Holtz: fragment charm