Thanksgiving thank you notes...EZ step by step

I visited some dear friends over the thanksgiving weekend and i thought i would send some simple handmade thank you notes. One couple invited us to dinner and to stay with them for the weekend. Another couple hosted a casual party for us Friday night. And another dear friend gave us all little gifts. (more on that later!)

For ideas i flipped through a vintage Larousse illustrated dictionary and found this little bird.

I already had some nice orange card stock folded into a journal that i never used - but it was a bit too big for the envelopes.

Here's how to decide how big to make the cards - i measured the envelopes! They were about 7 1/4 by 5 1/4.

This is my favorite precision cutter - just the right size for this type of project. Keeping the cardstock folded, i cut along the long edge so that it was 5 inches wide.

Then i cut the short end so that the card was 7 inches tall.

A perfect fit!

I scanned the page from the dictionary with the dinde, (turkey in French) and printed it out 4 to a page. My HP printer program asks me if i want to print any image one, two, three, 4 or 9 to a page. Otherwise i would not know how to do this!

The dictionary paper was a little to small and lonely on the card. I tried a few scenarios and decided to make a simple frame.

To get the perfect measurement - i looked at the card and the dictionary page, lining them up on the edge of the paper cutter. One was 5 by 7 the other was 3 by 5 - so the frame should be cut to 4 by 6.

Perfect!

This scrapbook paper had a preprinted rough edge all around. But since i cut it into peices- i only had one "rough" edge left. So to make all sides "match" - i used a bit of sanding square to rub off a bit of the colour.

Here you can see how much better it looks when all edges have that faded effect.

Here it is all glued together. I used my fav UHU glue stick.

I wanted a little something something to add to the card. I tried and rejected buttons, ribbon and stickers. Instead I added a single skeleton leaf to the front of each card with two tiny glue dots. Put them right on the stem or you risk tearing the leaf.

So sweet and simple - i call this perfect symmetry - like a matted picture in a frame.

So the gift i received from Mary was a calligraphy pen and violette ink - scented as well as coloured purple. I totally suck at calligraphy - but i thought it would be rude not to try. Here's a tip - write on a separate piece of paper - NOT directly on the card. That way you can make MANY mistakes and just save the best one.

Here are the three cards. I added a little autumnal fruity sticker to the inside of the card - to hold the sentiment in place. Off they go into the mail!

Now, what will i do for christmas cards...hmmmm....?

Trash Can Challenge

Ok - so here was the deal - take whatever you have in your craft room trash - and make something out of it! Thanks Marie for suggesting this fun and creative way to get us working with found objects, aka scraps, rather than my carefully sorted and filed supplies! We were tasked to create something with what we found literally in the garbage - allowing us to use one thing from our studios. I started by dumping the bag (i just recycle plastic bags - hooked onto the drawer of my worksurface) out onto the desk in our office. That way - i would not allow myself to "steal" all the real art supply goodies from my studio. Well let's just say there were slim pickings! Mostly packaging - not a lot of interesting stuff.
But two things did emerge: orange and black. How apropos for halloween week! The orange was the labels from some dick blick canvases and the back of a big lots receipt. The black came from the backing for a package of bird stencils i purchases recently. Interestingly the black backing was covered with skull and cross bones - interesting logo for a stencil company, but it was really faint and doesn't show in the finished product - but would have been cool it is did! I did scratch up the shiny surfaces with a sanding square that was also in the garbage!

I started by sorting all the bits into piles to see what i had to work with. The dick blick labels became two overlapping pupkins. A catalog page sofa became the eyes and a scrap of black paper the mouth. I used a page from the phone book to make a pointy border for the piece. Old phone books are great to use as a surface to glue on on your craft table. When it gets too sticky - just turn the page.
Some bits were serendipidous - like the label for a package of mini eggs was printed with a green leafy vine and two doves. The sticker backing for a a border of stars became partnered with a clock moon, cut from a catalog page scrap. Some strips of floral paper were used to create stripes on the pumpkin.

The final touch, and allowed by the "rules" was to take some portfolio oil pastels and smear some colour all around the edges to blend it all together.