A Sophisticated Thank You Card, in Sangria

The reasons for which I am eternally grateful, and thankful on a daily basis, are too many to count. While I try to always thank the person who holds the door open for me, who helps me with a retreat, or just makes my day better, I have not been as good about expressing thank in the way I do best: with a card.

I'm trying to better with that. So I've made a few of these cards to keep handy in my stash to send to those who just brighten my day in some way:

This card was mostly scrap-lifted from a design on Close To My Heart's Creative Insider, plans that help consultants come up with projects for their workshops. I made a few modifications to it -- really, not enough to call my own -- but let's talk about it.

First, using CTMH's "A Thousand Thanks" (C1625) stamp set and Eggplant Exclusive Ink Stamp pad (Z2647), I stamped the words "Thank You" at the top of my cut Daisy White card piece. 

Next, I lined up all of those itty-bitty lines of expressions for stamping. Here, I'll let you in on a secret discovery I recently made. You're going to hate me and love me at the same time for telling you about this tool:

I used a stamp positioning tool called a "MISTI", which stands for the Most Incredible Stamping Tool Invented. OK, not so humble, but maybe right. It's changed how I stamp and made my life so much easier!

This is what MISTI looks like: It is the size of your Galaxy Samsung Tablet, but it has a magnetic bottom, a layer of foam, positioning grids on the bottom and on the lid. To work a MISTI, you arrange your stamps (stamping side down, or exposed) along the lines of the grid so you can center the lines as well as keep them straight. 

What I do is put my A2 card onto the MISTI and decide where I want my stamps to be on the card, generally. I put the lid down on top of the stamps, and the lid will left up the acrylic to be generally where you want them. Then you can rearrange them to be straight/centered, etc.   You ink up the stamps right on the acrylic lid and fold (hinges) the lid down onto your paper. 

Miss a bit of inking? You can re-ink and re-strike, with nearly perfect alignment most of the time. Have several cards to make at a time of the same design?  Just insert a new A2 paper, reink and drop the lid. Easy-peasy. Here is a video that the makers of MISTI have on their website: 

MISTI is not inexpensive: $50 base price, and you'll need add-ons like magnets, grid paper, and cleaner. You can buy it from the inventor/manufacturer, My Sweet Petunia, at the link provided. Trust me on this one: This is my favorite tool of 2015 so far!

Back to the card:  I lined up the 3 sentiments on the MISTI and finished off the white card using Eggplant. Then I decided to stamp the word FRIEND using Versamark (glue) pad, and sprinkled the stamped word with Princess Gold embossing powder. I then heat set the embossed word, waving my warmed CTMH Craft Heater tool about 3/4" above the word until the embossing powder melted to a nice shine.

I used Bazzill Gold Foil paper (scrapbook.com) to line the sentiment (white) paper, then layered that atop a banner-trimmed piece of Eggplant paper. I topped the Eggplant piece with a strip of CTMH Sangria paper that I love, and topped that with a piece of CTMH Gold Shimmer trim. The accents are Bling Assortment in Gold from CTMH as well.   

Voila! Done!  Such a sophisticated card, on trend and heartfelt. 

Quick Thank You Card Using "A Ton" Stamps

Happy Monday!

I've been spending an inordinate amount of time trying to clean my craft room, and I keep getting distracted by all of the fun stuff I have to use!  (Can you say: "Attention Deficit??")

One of the great new stamps I've gotten in the mail recently is a set by a "couture" stamp manufacturer called "The Ton".  They have some pretty layered floral stamps that I'd been eyeing up, and this "Wild Peonies" spoke to me. It stamped beautifully in CTMH Honey Exclusive Ink, with the leaves in CTMH Topiary.

Now I have never seen yellow peonies before so I kind of think I made them up, but I like the yellow and green for today. The "Thank You" stamp is from Heidi Swapp -- and frankly, no matter what ink I used or paper I used, the stamp was just plain ol' blurry.  I can't recommend it, though I think I got the mini-set for about $1.00 at Michael's so who am I to complain?  I went over the sentiment in a marker, of course, after I finished my stamping of the flowers, and naturally, it smudged. Oh well. We hand-crafters can't always be perfect, right? 

I matted it up with some CTMH Topiary and Black papers, and sandwiched between is a scrap that I discovered in my clean up/out.  Just a quickie card, and back to clean up. Phew, I just cannot believe how much STUFF ... I mean, crafty goodness ... I have up here in my Paper Jungle!

Paper bows by Vicki

Here's a simple thank you card that uses two of my recent favorite finds.

See that adorable bow?

It's die cut from paper and assembled. I won a set of these bows during a blog hop that featured a dear blogger friend, Vicki Chrisman of This Art That Makes Me Happy.

Vicki designed the die and had it made for her Accu-Cut machine. While the die itself is one-of-a-kind, you can purchase the paper bows from Vicki, on her Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/listing/97688540/8-cardstock-blows-sm

Vicki will custom-cut the bows in colors, themes, or papers you designate. The bows come in 3 sizes: small, medium and large. The one on this card is a medium, where the height is about 5".

The other neat purchase is an alphabet die set that I recently purchased from Papertrey Ink.  I love the clean script lettering on the "thank you!", which I cut from kraft card stock.

I also VERY much like that the alphabet set comes on a small magnetic sheet so you can keep the letters in order, alphabetized, in storage. They come flat, joined with small bits that you can cut apart to use individually. For now -- and because my sentiment had no duplicate letters -- I cut the full alphabet with one run through the Big Kick, and I saved the unneeded letters in a small baggie for another day.

By the way, the paper eyelet lace punch (left side of the card) is one of my oldies-but-goodies from Martha Stewart. 



Thank you for brightening my day!

I owe a thank you to many fellow paper crafters, but today this shout out is going to JAMIE FITZGERALD, whose adorable blog is called "Glitter Stamps and Paper Oh My."  Click the name to be taken over for a visit.

When Jamie saw on Facebook that my precious granddaughter Charlotte loves all things "Streeeeeeeeet" (aka, Sesame Street), she generously offered to send me two bow holders that she had made for her daughter. Adrianna had outgrown the cute crafts -- Bert and Ernie on one, and Abby Cadaby on the other. 

They're adorable. I'd show you a picture, but Charlotte already has them before I was able to photograph.

So Jamie, this card is for you.

The recipe: I used a Lawn Fawn floral paper from a 6x6" stack ... I'm loving these smaller stacks for cardmaking!  I mounted the floral paper atop a warm purple Bazzill paper. Next, I computer-generated the sentiment, printed and rounded the corners, and inked the edges. It's popped for dimension. I added two butterflies cut with Cheery Lynn Designs dies; I inked and glimmer misted the butterflies too. A strip of knotted grosgrain ribbon, accented with a CardMonkey Embellie stick pin, and I'm done.

Thank you again, Jamie, for your thoughtfulness. I'm mailing this card to you (as soon as I find your address!!!). I hope my blog followers will hop over to see your pretty altered candle for Mother's Day, and comment, as I know you're feeling a bit overwhelmed right now. Know you're loved!!

WINNERS, WINNERS!!

CardMonkey is pleased to announce the following blog candy winners, chosen randomly at the close of the New Year THANK YOU CARD blog hop. Winners, you should have received an e-mail from me. Please respond with your full name, mailing address, etc.

BLOG CANDY #1 - One dozen handmade brads was won by KIM at www.crazyaboutscrapin@blogspot.com

BLOG CANDY #2 - Super box of embellishments, a grab bag goes to JESSIE at goodjessie.

BLOG CANDY #3 - Handmade flowers were won by Elaine at ExpressionsbyElaine@blogspot.com

BLOG CANDY #4 - Cricut cartridge ZOOBALLOO goes to Jennifer at partridgelu at yahoo.com

BLOG CANDY #5 - a package of four mini-embossing folders as well as one standard A2 Cuttlebug embossing folder goes to SillyP at cornerstone cs dot net.

BLOG CANDY #6 - A full, new set of 36 Bic permanent markers will be sent to Shawnee at s j penkacik at gmail.com

BLOG CANDY #7 - a Thank you stamp, an embossing "Danke" folder, and cut butterflies are going to Janet at ladyluvybug@blogspot.com

GRAND POOHBAH OF ALL Blog Candy during this hop....

A HANDMADE, Custom Cricut Cozy was won by BECKY DUNHAM

of bloglessinutah.blogspot.com. Becky, please let me know the colors in which you'd like me to make your cover, and what text you'd like me to embroider on the front.

Winners, congratulations. Please be sure to send me your address ASAP. THANK YOU!

Thank you for a glorious day!

Good morning, Friends!

Today, feeling grateful for a glorious morning, I decided to post this rather simple thank-you card for you to see, copy, whatever!

I found a very simple, free font that has this loose script that I like so much. There are many free font websites (and I forget which one I used to get this), just Google search "free downloadable fonts". I laid out the sentiment three times, cut one long strip of pink that I trimmed in three bars, embellished with this beautiful flower from Creative Charms, and tacked on three baby rhinestones on the right side of each strip as well. I rounded the corners of the white cardstock and mounted it on a small black card. The inside has a complimenting white card that has been embellished to match, for a writing surface.

Enjoy the day!