You say pumpkin- I say tomato

This week is my father's birthday so today we had a birthday dinner at my parent's house. Since my dad really likes to cook, we bought him an assortment of spices from Penzey's. Penzey's is the holy grail source for spices and spice blends. I decorated a gift bag for him and put the spices in it.

Decorating the gift bag took some time, the background took me the longest. First I added layers of gray and green Blo-Pen (my CoorArtz airbrush isn't working -grr), then I laid down a checkerboard stencil and laid down more color, and randomly moved it, coloring only certain sections. Then I grabbed my Tim Holtz stencil and sponged green ink in the corners of the bag. My hands looked like zombie hands when I was done.


Next I cut 2 carrots (orange and green) with my Slice and cut and pasted so it would have traditional colors. I added some details with markers and chalk ink. See the tomato? It is actually a pumpkin image from Smeared Ink. At the risk of offending the artist, I love the image but think it is shaped more like a tomato so that is how I colored it. Terra, the owner of Smeared Ink was cool enough to expedite my order. The letters were cut with my slice and I edged them with chalk ink and stuck them onto the bag.


The box is a small gift from my daughter for my dad (Grandpa), wrapped by my daughter (10 years old). Holy Cannoli! Look at that bow- she tied it all by herself. My photo doesn't do it justice- the kid is a natural bow tier. Shes doesn't even know how she does it- she just knows. I have the bow easy and still struggle- and my kid does it freehand. I'm going to hire her to tie my bows- think she'll give me a discount rate?