Count Your Blessings Thanksgiving Card

Hi fellow crafters! Hope you're having a great weekend!

As promised, here are my Thanksgiving cards I made for this year and am sending to close family and friends:

2 colors - Stampin' Up's

Purely Pomegranate and Really Rust

This photo is my fave

Inside of Really Rust card

 Purely Pomegranate

Inside of Purely Pomegranate

Supplies:

• Pretty photos of my daughters in the Fall leaves :)
• Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge for leaves
• Close to My Heart Celebrations maple leaf stamp (from Art Philosophy bundle)
• "Count Your Blessings" stamp from Scrappy Moms' The Charmed Life set
• Stampin' Up Purely Pomegranate ink (previous In Color)
• Stampin' Up Really Rust Ink (retired I think?)
• My Craft Spot Pumpkin Spice and Acorn Crinkle ribbons
• The Paper Company cardstock in kraft and textured brown from JoAnn
• Stampin' Up ticket corner punch (on photo)
• Monotype Corsiva font (preloaded on Windows)

A while back I emailed Kimberly of My Craft Spot to see if she had a plum colored crinkle ribbon. She was so sweet! She contacted me right away, she sent samples out, and I ordered a very nice looking plum. I was thinking that it would match my younger daughter's shirt. But after taking the photos, printing them, and then finally having them in hand, I realized the plum was not the true color of my daughter's shirt. It actually matches the Stampin' Up color, Razzleberry that I used on last year's Thanksgiving cards. Ugh! I do appreciate Kimberly making that plum ribbon for me, though, and will definitely put it to good use on another project.

 

Another thing I discovered upon having the photo prints in hand was that the one photo had some orange leaves in the background. So, luckily when I ordered the plum ribbon from My Craft Spot, I also ordered the Fall Collection, which included 4 beautiful colors: Pumpkin Spice, Golden Harvest, Acorn and Maple Leaf.  This allowed me to play around with the colors and still be able to use Kimberly's beautiful ribbon!

 

I also have to mention that I am LOVING having stamps that coordinate with Cricut cuts!! I don't mean to be an enabler, but if you like stamping and are Cricut-obsessed like me, then you might have a little fun with the Close To My Heart Art Philosophy bundle. There are some great stamps included like the leaf I used on the card. Check Melanie's Brown's blog, Courtney Lane Designs if you want more information on it. I have a couple more projects coming up that I will be utilizing this great cartridge. 

 

I am entering my Thanksgiving cards into My Craft Spot's "Gobble 'Til You Wobble" challenge to make a Thanksgiving project.

 

Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!                 

Cards of Thanksgivings Past

Just as I did for Mother's Day and Father's Day, I am adding a post with all of my homemade Thanksgiving cards from past years. I find my blog to be a great resource for me when I want to look back on what I've previously done - especially when I'm away from home. It also shows how my daughters have grown (insert a long mom-like "awe" here) and how my crafting has changed. As you can see below, I have been a big Stampin' Up fan. :)

I started my handmade card endeavor in 2004 shortly after attending my first Stampin' Up home party, so here we go:

2004 - Quite simple!

2005 - Getting more detailed . . .

2006 - Yep, loved Gymboree for my girls!

2007 - There were 2 designs this year- vertical . . .

and horizontal!

2008 - No more Gymboree (insert sad Mom face here)

Still cute, though!

2009 - Gap outfits this year!

2010 (See original post HERE)

Next I will post this year's Thanksgiving card so stay tuned. :)

BTW, I'm so excited today! My turkey treat holders won a Top 5 spot on the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog for Challenge # 84- Woo Hoo! Thanks, FCCB!

Getting closer to Friday - YES!! Enjoy the rest of your week!

Eat Beef, not turkey!!

Hello everyone!

This weekend I finally put away the Halloween decorations, put up the little bit of Thanksgiving ones I have, and got busy with my Thanksgiving crafts! I made all 16 of my Thanksgiving cards, which I will post soon, but I've been slaving away at this project the better part of the weekend so I could jump into the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge # 84, "For The Birds!"

Like last school year (see post HERE), I made treats for the monthly teacher luncheon that each class sponsors at my girls' school. It is my older daughter's grade's turn this month. I was talking to the parent coordinator about it a few weeks back and she said she didn't want to have turkey as the main entree because the school puts on a big traditional Thanksgiving feast closer to the holiday. She is doing beef sandwiches instead. So, I offered to make the crafty treats to have at each school staff member's place setting and this is what I came up with:

 The holder was made using Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge -

I'm SO getting my money's worth out of it!!

I got mine through Melanie Brown, just in case you need a

CTMH consultant. She's the one that tempted me into getting

the Art Philosophy bundle in the first place by showing

so many fun projects on her blog! :) 

 Here is the back view of my treat.

 Here is a close-up of the message to the school staff.

I handcut the signs.

This is what each staff member will find

when they untie the baker's twine!

BTW, I got a 230-piece bag of these miniature chocolates

50% off after Halloween at Wal-Mart- Woo Hoo!!

The turkey is from the Cricut Simply Charmed cartridge.

He's whimsical but not too whimsical I think.

All my turkey treats together!

Supplies:

• Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge p22 for the treat holder (Got 2 on a 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of kraft cardstock using my Gypsy!)
• Cricut Simply Charmed cartridge for turkeys (created layers on my Gypsy-much easier!)
• The Paper Company kraft cardstock from Joann
• Recollections black cardstock from Michael's
• Red, orange and yellow cardstock scraps from my stash
• Cappuccino baker's twine purchased from Scrappy Moms
• ChildWritten font which you can download for free HERE (I used all caps for "EAT BEEF!")
• Monotype Corsiva font for message to school staff (Mine was installed with Microsoft Office, but you may find for free somewhere on the web)
• Foam dots for behind the turkey

Why do I show a photo of this tray with all of my treats to one side? Well that's because I have 20 more to make and add to this tray -Yikes!! And if I didn't take a break and post, I wouldn't have made it into FCCB's challenge- LOL!

I will be back soon with a post of my Thanksgiving card. Also, I will post all of the previous Thanksgiving cards I have made since I started making my own cards (circa 2004, I think?). That post will be more of a reference for me, but bear with me. :)

Well, back to the turkey treat making factory. Have a good crafty week everyone!

Time to Give Thanks!

Are you ready to give thanks? Thanksgiving is less than 2 weeks away - Wow! One of our local radio stations is already playing Christmas music 24/7, so I feel like time is going by oh so fast! How many shopping days left??? But seriously, I hope you are all counting your blessings as we get closer to the official day of giving thanks.

Here is my Thanksgiving card that I sent out to close family and friends earlier this week:

Supplies used:

Adorable fall photo of my girls :)
Cuttlebug Victoria embossing folder
Cricut Storybook cartridge (die cut for "Give Thanks" - pg 71 Accent Blackout)
PC for inside wording - Be Safe font used
Stampin' Up Rich Razzleberry cardstock & ink
Stampin' Up Rich Razzleberry 5/8" satin ribbon
Stampin' Up Soft Suede cardstock & ink
Stampin' Up Very Vanilla cardstock
Stampin' Up Holiday Best Stamp Set "Give Thanks" (previous catty hostess set)
Stampin' Up Ticket corner punch

I love taking pictures of my girls and making them the focal point of all of my cards for the various holidays. And they just love "photo shoots" with Mom . . . NOT! I usually make up for the torture, though. Yes, they can be bribed! Our Christmas photo shoot is tomorrow, so let the torture continue!

Have a wonderful weekend!!