Week 2, CHAPTER 21: Gratitude

'You ought to return thanks in a neat speech,' the Red Queen said, frowning at Alice as she spoke. . . .In fact it was rather difficult for her to keep in her place while she made her speech: the two Queens pushed her so, one on each side, that they nearly lifted her up into the air:
'I rise to return thanks--' Alice began: and she really DID rise as she spoke, several inches; but she got hold of the edge of the table, and managed to pull herself down again.-- Chapter 9, Through the Looking Glass

The US Thanksgiving holiday is this month, and many people are dedicating the month to a spirit of gratitude; after all there is nothing like counting your blessings to make you realize how many blessings there are! Our theme this month is GRATITUDE, and you can interpret that any way you like as long as you explain it in your post. Enter by Friday, Nov. 23; all entries are welcome but those that feature Wonderland will have two chances instead of one. Multiple entries are encouraged, but each must be on a separate post to have additional chances at the prize, which is quite wonderful!
The theme ties in nicely with this month's sponsor, Nature's Blessings, who have offered a $30 shopping spree to the randomly chosen winner! Lynne Phelps (the Altered Alice's Mad Hatter) says, "Nature's Blessings stamps were the beginning of my love affair with Alice in Wonderland stamping, as they have beautiful rubber versions of the original Tenniel illustrations of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland AND Through the Looking Glass. Without Nature's Blessings, The Altered Alice might not exist!" And I could say the same.
In the words of Nature's Blessings:
As avid readers and bibliophiles, we fell in love with the beautiful line drawings in the books in our family library. Our antiquarian stamps are a collection of our favorite images. If your tastes range from the classically elegant to the quirky and fun, then we make stamps for you! We also offer a variety of original art: be sure to visit John Wagner's page of Calligraphy and Art Lettering, and Laura Ann's pages of stamps for holidays and special occasions.
My inspiration for you this week:

November starts the season of holiday celebration. There are holiday dinners and parties galore. When one is invited to dinner or a party, one way to show gratitude is to bring a hostess gift. My post today shares a couple of hostess gifts I made to show thanks.
I started with a simple thank you card. I used a piece of My Mind's Eye designer paper for the background.  My focal stamp, from Nature's Blessings, was colored with tombow markers and then framed with solid cardstock. The sentiment is from Club Scrap. A little trick I tried was to put a bit of picket fence distress stain where I planned to stamp the sentiment. You can still see the designer paper, but the sentiment is gently highlighted.

My first gift is a nightlight. The blank shade and light came together.  I decorated the shade by adding a piece of light colored design paper. Although it is only barely visible in the photo, I added the phrase "Thank You" along one edge. I stamped the stamp (Nature's Blessings) and die cut it in a circle along with a circular layering panel. The image was colored using Tombow markers. I attached a piece of lace along the bottom of the shade. Then I added the image panel. Finally a second piece of lace was attached along the top. I think the night light would make a lovely hostess gift.

 

My second hospitality gift is a set of glass coasters with an insert space for images. The base is made of wood. I sponge painted the base with Claudine Hellmuth blue paint. Once it was dry, I stamped the sentiment (Artistic Outpost) with Staz-On on one side of the base. For each of the four coasters, I stamped a different image (Nature's Blessings) and colored the images with Tombow markers.
Here are the four individual coasters.