A Cricut Thanksgiving

Welcome!  I have another Cricut project for you today, using one of my favorite seasonal Cricut cartridges.  The Thanksgiving Mini cartridge is useful for all kinds of goodies.  So far this month I have made a pretty garland and some Thanksgiving helpers, and I'm sharing them all with you here.

First up, my leaf garland.  I have a grapevine tree in my kitchen; it's a bit like a Christmas tree made of grapevine, but it stays out all year long.  I just got it last year, so I am slowly adding to my stash of decor for it to wear.  This year I made a garland of leaves using the leaf cut on the Thanksgiving cartridge.

Using my Gypsy, I hid all of the interior cuts on the leaf so I was left with just an outline.  I then copied it multiple times on my virtual mat so I could cut several at once.  I pulled a variety of papers from my stash in Fall colors, including some colored vellum, some suede-finish paper, textured cardstock, and some American Crafts glitter paper in Leaf.  (I used a stamp pad to ink the back side of the glitter paper in case they flipped over some.)  After the leaves were cut, I used various colors of Stickles to add some swirly veins to the leaves.  Once the Stickles were dry, I punched holes in all of the leaves, then tied them onto some hemp cord a few inches apart. Then all I had left to do was wind it around my tree!

Next are my little Thanksgiving helpers.  Did you know that this cartridge comes with napkin ring and place card designs?  (In fact, the place card is useful for any occasion as it has a simple flourish design.)  Here's the napkin ring and place card design:

To fit my paper napkin & plasticware, I cut my napkin ring at 1", but I would definitely go larger for a cloth napkin or larger paper napkin.  They are easily joined together at the back with Scor Tape.  I cut the place card at 2.5", as well as the place card layer.  I cut the layer from black CS and adhered it to the card, then added Stickles to it.  I used Distressed Stickles in Scattered Straw, Spiced Marmalade, and Fired Brick.

When we celebrate at my parents' house, there are usually over 40 of us with an equally large amount of food.  It gets hard to keep track of what everything is, so I thought the place card would also make a great way to label the various foods:

Using my Gypsy again, I hid all of the interior cuts on the place card layer.  I copied it to a second one then resized the copy slightly smaller to fit inside and joined them together.  Then I selected the pie cut and fit it into the place card layer cuts and welded it there.  I also cut the pie layers at the same size as the pie.  After adhering the various layers to the place card, I dressed it up a bit.  I again used the Scattered Straw and Fired Brick Distress Stickles on the pie, and I added Frosted Lace Stickles to the steam.  I plan to make more with some of the other cuts on the cartridge to take with me so everyone can label their not-so-obvious dishes!