The theme for this Thursday was Make a Gift. There's even a link on the Inspiration Thursday site where you can pledge to make all your gifts or buy hand-made gifts and ask others to do the same.
It's been a tough year for some of my family, so this year I made them hope chests. I started with purchased boxes, which I covered with a layer of gesso. The words were printed on tissue paper. Since I had some space left on the final sheet after I printed "Hope" as many times as I needed, I experimented with other word, like "Joy," "Trust," and the names of the children in the family.
The tissue paper was laid down with a coating of Golden medium gloss gel. Ornaments were made of air-drying paper clay and other bits of ephemera. Everything was covered with multiple layers of medium gloss gel, and bits of ribbon and trim were used to finish the edges of the box top.
