Hey, Thanks!

Hi All! It's time for another Thankful Thursday project. The sun is shining. The kids are happily involved in school. The dog is snoring. I have LOTS to be thankful for. So let's take a look at my card, which is celebrating another reason to be thankful: my friends!

This fun-fold card is FULL of techniques. I'll just go through a couple with you here, and do a how-to video on the whole shebang in the up-coming weeks.

The base of the card is made with Colonial White cardstock and layered with patterned paper from the Sangria collection. The fun-fold part of the card is made from Eggplant cardstock layered with Colonial White cardstock and Sangria paper. I decided to make my own back ground on the paper using the September Stamp Of The Month, Paper Garden. To do so, I stamped a variety of images on each of the Sangria layers in Pomegranate and Eggplant inks. For the front, I stamped the large flower in VersaMark ink and heat embossed it with gold embossing powder. The sentiment is stamped in Black Archival ink and is from the Hello, Life!-cardmaking stamp set.

Here are some close-ups of the stamping and sentiments:

And here is another look at the card with the gorgeous Sangria paper behind it:

Hope you enjoyed this little thank you. Have a wonderful, thankful, creative day!

Thankful Thursday: the Tall & the Skinny

Hi All! Welcome to another Thankful Thursday. Today's card was inspired by the current Tall & Skinny challenge over at Mojo Monday. Here's a look at the sketch:

And here's my card:

My card base is 3 1/2 x 6 inches. The base and bottom layer are both cut from White Daisy cardstock. I wanted to continue to play with my new CTMH Watercolors, so I did a small background wash of blues and greens on watercolor paper and added it to the bottom layer, along with a strip of Gold Shimmer Trim for a little bling.

The flowers are cut from White Daisy cardstock. I stamped them in Pear, Lagoon, Honey and Hollyhock inks using the Dizzy Circles stamp set, and popped up the smaller one with dimensional adhesive. The sentiment is from the new A Thousand Thanks stamp set, and is stamped on White Daisy cardstock. (LOVE. THIS. SET.) "Thanks" is stamped in the new Peacock ink (gorgeous color!) and "friend" is in archival black ink.

Finally, I added some Gold Sequins for a little extra fun. Here are a few of close-ups of the card:

And here's another look at the card:

Hope you enjoyed this project. Have a fabulous day filled with gratitude!

Fundamentally Thankful

Hi All! Welcome to another Thankful Thursday. (I'm in Glacier National Park today, and can't tell you how thankful I am to be surrounded by such rugged beauty!)

Meanwhile, back at the blog...

Today I'm sharing a thank you note that I created using paper from the Enchantment Fundamentals Paper Pack. Let's take a look:

For this card, I used a standard White Daisy card base and layered it with Smokey Plum cardstock.

For the decorative layer, I started with a base cut from the Smokey Plum Houndstooth paper from the Enchantment Fundamentals paper pack. I then used Thistle ink to color a 3x4 inch chevron patterned card from the For Always Picture My Life set. The card is originally black and white, but when colored with Thistle ink, it becomes Thistle and Smokey Plum. (How cool is that!) I then cut the card into a 2 1/2 x 4 inch banner. I also cut a banner from gold dot vellum from my stash. I then cut a piece of the fundamentals paper and a strip of White Shimmer Trim, and trimmed each to a point that mimics the chevron paper beneath them. I added all of these layers to the base layer with my mini stapler. For the sentiment, I used the August Stamp Of The Month set, Framed, for both the background and the "thanks." I stamped the background twice onto White Daisy cardstock using Smokey Plum ink. I then stamped the "thanks"(also in Smokey Plum) on one of the backgrounds. I fussy cut the background out of one of the impressions and fussy cut just the thanks pennant from the other. (You can see my inspiration for this technique here.) I layered those together and popped the whole thing up on a 2 inch scalloped circle that I punched from Smokey Plum cardstock with dimensional adhesive. I used more dimensional adhesive to attach the scalloped circle to the decorative layer. I then added the entire decorative to a piece of craft foam that I cut to be slightly smaller than the layer and added the whole thing to the card base. Finally, I added some gold sequins for a little extra somethin'. 

Here's a close-up that shows the dimension of the sentiment:

I hope you enjoyed this little thank you. Remember Close To My Heart is refreshing the fundamentals collections along with the Enchantment color palette, so these papers will retire at the end of this month. If you love these patterns and/or colors, stock up while you can. Furthermore, Close To My Heart is retiring the For Always Picture My Life set (along with several sets) at the end of the month as well. Here's a link to the retiring products. So stock up while you can and don't despair, there are a lot of new and exciting things coming your way September 1st!

Have a fantastic, gratitude-filled day!

A Little Thankful Thursday Mojo

Hi All! I just wanted to share a little Thankful Thursday card that was inspired by this week's Mojo Monday sketch.

Here's the sketch:

And here's my take on it:

This is a standard 5 1/2 x 4 1/4-inch card base that is made from White Daisy cardstock. The houndstooth and dot patterned paper are from the newly released Zoe paper pack. The narrow striped strip and the pink banner are stickers from the new Zoe complements pack The kraft cardstock piece that is sporting the sentiment is also from the complements pack. Both the pink banner and sentiment are popped up with dimensional adhesive. The sentiment is from the Finding The Words stamp set and is stamped in Slate ink to match the Slate cardstock layer behind it. I also added a little 2-inch scalloped circle that I punched from Zoe paper using a retired CTMH punch. Finally, I added white sequins from the Coral Reef Sequins pack and Slate epoxy bubbles for a little bling.

Here are some close ups: (Notice that the kraft embellishment has a little bit of a resist pattern in it.)

And that's my card for today!

Have a wonderful day, and don't forget to stop back by tomorrow for a Kraft-y Hearts blog share featuring the Zoe Collection.

Until then....

A Bunch of Thanks

Hi All! Welcome to another edition of Thankful Thursday. Today's project is a group of thank you notes I made a while back using the Variety of Thanks stamp set (a hostess reward set from Seasonal Expressions 1, which retires at the end of march), the Brushstrokes stamp set (which was introduced in Seasonal Expressions 1, and will NOT retire at the end of the month), and the Paper Fundamentals Adventure Assortment paper pack.

While most of my projects include lots of layers and bling, I do occasionally prefer the clean and simple. This set of cards is just that. I let the bright, bold patterns and colors of the papers do all the work, and just added a little stamping and heat embossing.

Lets take a look.

Color: Gypsy

The note cards are standard 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inch cards made with White Daisy cardstock. I layered that with a piece of patterned paper that was cut at 4 x 5 1/4 inches. The back of the paper fundamentals papers have a resist pattern, so you need to use a strong adhesive to adhere them to the base. (I used Tombow's Xtreme Adhesive.)

The sentiment is stamped on a piece of White Daisy cardstock that is cut at 3 1/2  x 4 3/4 inches and adhered to the patterned layer with regular adhesive. I stamped the Brushstroke stamp in ink that matched the patterned paper (in this case, Gypsy Exclusive ink), and then stamped the sentiment in Versa Mark ink. I added white embossing powder and heat set it. I like the texture and shine of the embossing,  but you could stamp the sentiment in White Daisy pigment ink if you don't want texture and shine. If you don't have white embossing powder, you could stamp the image in white ink and emboss it with clear embossing powder for a similar effect to the above.

Here's a close up:

And here's a look at all of the cards:

Colors: Cranberry, Cotton Candy, Hollyhock

Colors: Sunset, Honey, Pear

Colors: Topiary, Lagoon, Pacifica

I ended up making 2 of each pattern, so 20 cards in all. My goal is to start sending notes regularly to friends and family. I know we usually keep thank you notes to respond to gifts given or specific things that have been done for us, and I'll use these that way. But I also thought it would be nice to send out a few to just thank people for being themselves and being in my life. I'm grateful for my friends and family. I should probably tell them that more often....

Thankful Thursday: Happy Thanksgiving

Hi All! Just wanted to share a little card I made for my mom. It applies to you my readers and followers as well.

Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Thankful Thursday: Gratitude Makes It Enough....

Hi folks! Welcome to another Thankful Thursday. I usually have a Thank You note for you, but today I thought I'd share a project I made to showcase here at convention. (I'm missing my family, too, so it's nice to see a picture of them....)

This little frame is one of the unfinished ones I picked up at my local craft store for $1. I covered it with paper from the Jubilee paper Pack. I used chipboard elements from the Jubilee Compliments pack for the pennant banner, the laughter & love tag, and the gingham heart. "You're One In A Mellon" is from a Jubilee zip strip (that little 1/2 strip of paper at the top of a 12x12 inch page.) The yellow polka dot flowers are from my stash. I added bling to the center from the Rosewood Mini Medley collection, which also comes with the copper swirls. "SO blessed" is stamped in Indian Corn Blue Exclusive ink using the limited edition (retired) "You Are My Happy" stamp set. The sentiment at the bottom is from the Always Grateful stamp set and is also stamped in Indian Corn Blue. The watermelon is from the Jubilee Workshop On The Go stamp set and was stamped on White Daisy cardstock and Jubilee patterned paper in Topiary Exclusive ink.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I hope you have a long list of blessings to count. If you're struggling, start with the breath you just took, the blink that just protected your eye, the visual cortex that allows you to read this post, the fact that you can read this post, and work your way down from there. And by the way, I, for one, count you as a blessing!

Have a wonderfully thankful Thursday!

Thankful Thursday Mojo

Hi All! Thought I'd share a little thank you note inspired by this week's Mojo Monday sketch.

Here's my take on it:

I used a White Daisy card base and layered it with Kraft cardstock. The pattern paper is from the Jubilee paper pack. I cut a 2-inch scalloped circle from White Daisy cardstock and layered it with a 1 1/2-inch circle cut from Kraft cardstock. All of the stamping was done in Pacifica Exclusive Ink. The "TY" and parentheses are a sneak peek of July's Stamp Of The Month. "Thank You" is from Close To My Heart's Banner Wishes stamp set.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

And here is the card again:

I hope you enjoyed a little Thankful Thursday mojo. Have a wonderful day counting your blessings!

Posted with Blogsy

Thankful Thursday

Hi All! So I've been thinking about doing a regular feature on Violets & Sunshine called "Thankful Thursday" that focuses on projects of gratitude--think thank you notes, gratitude journals, etc. And what better way to start off than with  The Paper Players theme challenge: "Thankful for Spring" thank you cards.

Here's my card:

I love the simplicity of this card! I started with a kraft cardstock base that measures 5 1/2 x 4 inches. I added paper from the Front Porch 6x6 paper pad by Pebbles and then adhered the chipboard sentiment (from Pebbles' From Me To You line). I love the spring colors in this!

Here are a couple of close-ups:

And here is our card once again:

Oh I am so thankful that spring is coming and that the sun was shining today! I hope this card put a little spring in your step. (Yes, I know, you don't have to be thankful for bad puns...)  Please let me know what you think about the Thankful Thursday idea.