Thank You at UnstampaBelles

The UnstampaBelles January challenge is Thank You, with the fun optional twist of incorporating something from just outside your window and blog about it.

You can link up your projects until the end of the month, but remember that you can't use ANY STAMPS (digi or otherwise)!

We live in Baltimore city, and my view from our backyard is of Marian House, a temporary residence for women. During most of the year we all enjoy a bit more privacy thanks to our over-hanging mulberry tree, but the leafless Winter opens up a clear view of the gray-brick building (plus a lovely view of the stars). 

This Christmas season, they decorated some of their windows with lovely hand-made decorations and lights, which inspired the colors on the card's window. As the holiday ends, the windows are re-populated by their resident cats. I cut this cat from a sheet of Graphic 45 DP. I'm not sure I've ever seen a Calico up there, but it would definitely be good luck!

The window is cut with a Sizzix/Susan's Garden die. I created the "Thanks" letters in SCAL using the Harrington font. I colored the windows with Smooch & Wink of Stella glitter inks, and coated the whole thing with Glossy Accents to give it a glass look as well as reinforce the die-cut letters.

I recently won a gift certificate to Simon Says Stamp, and one of the goodies I got was a brick wall stencil by MFT, which I've been itching to use. I applied a generous amount of gel medium over the stencil, removed the plastic stencil, and covered it with silver embossing powder.I found that I need to let the gel dry a bit before I could easily heat-emboss it, but I'm happy with the rough texture I ended up with.

Since it's pretty barren here in Maryland, I added white & brown leaf ribbons to the scene. When this post published on January 4, 2015 it was rainy and gray and those beautiful lights were still up. Love my neighborhood!

Inspiration/Challenges:
DRS Designs #155: Stencils (brick wall is made with a stencil)
Top Tip Tuesday: Make Your Own - something that's not store bought (background & letters)

Thank you for visiting, and hope you'll join us at UnstampaBelles,