Grungy Monday 28 and a Great Big Prize!

Happy Monday, and happy Thanksgiving week to my friends here in the states! You guys did a spectacular job on last week's challenge, and I'm very much enjoying making the rounds and seeing your beautiful art. 

Simon Says Stamp will be announcing the winner of the $25 shopping spree on their blog later, so be sure to check and see if your name is there! Thanks, as always, to the wonderful ladies at SSS for their generosity. 

Do you follow the Ranger Ink blog? If so, you probably saw their awesome Great Pumpkin Challenge last week. They gave several of their most beloved designers a little craft store pumpkin and asked them to create a wonderful centerpiece using Ranger products. Well, the designers more than rose to the occasion, and created some mind-blowingly gorgeous pieces. Here's a link to the first post in the series, so you can see all the cool art! In that spirit, this week's Grungy Monday will be to create your own project that's based on....

Tim's Piece for the Ranger Ink Great Pumpkin Challenge

The idea here is to be inspired by the technique Tim used to alter the pumpkin, not to actually alter a pumpkin (unless you want to, of course!). So, think embossed, Alcohol Ink'ed foil, and then let your imagination run wild with the idea. For my sample piece, I made a little holiday gift box:

I got the template for these little boxes from my friend, Lynn Stevens, who's truly one of the most amazing artists I've ever known. You can check out her beautiful blog here. The box is made from Tim's new Christmas Memories Kraft Resist paper, colored with Festive Berries Seasonal Distress Ink. This week's technique was used on the strip of Ranger Metal Foil tape, embossed with the garland folder from Tim's Sizzix Alterations Christmas Backgrounds and Borders set. Santa is from Tim's Seasonal Paper Stash, attached with Glossy Accents to a round Idea-ology Fragment. 

But, enough about me. Let's talk about the awesome prize that one of these week's entrants is going to win! I bought this in Mario's "Shop at Sea" on the Crafting Cruise a couple months ago, and Tim was gracious enough to autograph it, knowing it would eventually be a Grungy Monday prize. It's a very special Life's Journey Journal Kit, and includes all the components you need to make your own beautiful book, with Tim's instructions for putting it together. Tim taught this class several times over the past year, including in Puerto Rico to an audience of 800 students! The kit is something that's relatively rare and completely wonderful, and I'm so excited to be able to offer it as a Grungy Monday prize!

To be eligible to win, create your own work of art based on Tim's Great Pumpkin tutorial. Remember, this is all about taking the techniques and making them your own, so you can make whatever you wish as long as you incorporate Tim's process for embossed metal/foil with alcohol ink. When you're ready, upload your finished piece to your own blog or public image-hosting site, then add it to this post using the InLinkz button below. Please remember to include a link to Tim's tutorial in your post. Entries that don't won't be included in the drawing for the prize.  The winner will be chosen at random and announced in next week's Grungy Monday post.

Remember to share your photo at the All Things Tim group, too! Lovely List Mom, Gloria, has a special album just for your Grungy Monday masterpieces! If you're not already a member of this talented, supportive group of Tim fans, be sure to join!

I hope you all have a wonderful week, and whether or not you're celebrating Thanksgiving, I wish you countless things to feel grateful for. I certainly feel enormously thankful for all of you, my blog friends who never cease to inspire and amaze me with your kindness and talent!
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