Thanks is for Giving

Saying "thank you" is such an important thing to do.  One of the best ways I know how is to send a card, or better yet a card and a batch of chocolate chip cookies to show your gratitude.  :)  Thanksgiving is not the only time I reflect on what I'm thankful for.  Every day I am thankful for so many blessings in my life. (including you!)

On Monday I showed you one way to use the burlap ribbon, and this card uses up the pieces of "string" I pulled off the ribbon to make it fray.  Isn't that burlap bow a nice touch to the card?

In the video I will show you some easy things you can do with Stampin' UP!'s burlap ribbon.  It's great for the fall cards I've been making lately, but I've also used it on several masculine cards as well.  The texture is unique and I think that's why I like it so much.

***Note- If you are reading this post in your email you may need to go to my blog to view the video.

After the camera stopped rolling I made another card using the burlap banner.  It's one of my favorite Autumn cards this year.   It was also my Design Team card for StampNation earlier this month.  Originally my card submission was going to be the one in the video, but I like this one even better.

My favorite part of this card has to be the burlap banner with the addition of the brown button.  It just feels like fall to me.

The "thank" comes from an expressions thinlit that spells "thankful"  I just cut off the last three letters and glued it down using my two-way glue pen.  Next I stamped "YOU" from Friendship Preserves to add beneath it.   Adding the "you" took the longest time.  I went through all my stamps to find the right you and had to cut this one out to make it work, but it's worth it.  Now that the card is complete I love the added touch.

These are obviously Fall themed thank you cards because of the autumnal colored leaves stamped in the background, but if you changed up the color and stamp you could send these year round.  Perhaps I will make a snowflake thanks to show you what I mean.  :)

Creative Blessings,
Heather North

Stamps: Friendship Preserves, Magnificent Maple, Seasonal Sayings
Ink & Paper: ??? Summer Starfruit, Cajun Craze, Pumpkin Pie, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso (or was it Chocolate Chip), Soft Suede, Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla (Basically just pull out your fall colors and go to town)
Misc.: Burlap Ribbon, Nuetrals Button, Expressions Thinlits

Hello, Snow Girl

Greeting Card Kids is such a cute stamp set.  Every season I make at least one card using these adorable images.  For today's card I wanted a winter feel, but I didn't want to use the Christmas tree.  Here is what I came up with.

I was going to film a video showing you how I "lost" the tree, sparkled up the snowballs and colored the flower, but I ran in to a couple of snags.

Snag 1- No more snowballs.  We have had ice and snow and freezing rain here today (ironic isn't it) and I try not to drive when the weather is bad like it has been the past few days.  If it warms up enough to melt the ice I will go to town for more snowballs.

Snag 2- My house needed a major cleaning.  Over the weekend we moved around furniture and cleaned upstairs.  Outside we took down Christmas lights and moved the Christmas decorations out to the shed.  We also did a bit of cleanup outside.  So, today it was a matter of moving furniture downstairs and cleaning up all the mud we tracked in.  With Christmas all put away I felt the need to wash windows, vacuum around the baseboards and clean under the toaster in the kitchen.  By the time I finished that it was time to start dinner.  (and mess up my clean kitchen again!)

So, if you are interested in a video showing you how to make this card, please let me know with a comment below.  I'll film it after I find some more "snowballs". 

I'm excited that my house is clean.  That means tomorrow I can play in my craft room until it's time to pick up the kids from school.   :)  Oh, glorious day!!!

Creative Blessings,
Heather North

P.S.  It's almost 11pm, and I am finally getting today's post in.  I still have an hour to spare.  ;)

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Greeting Card Kids, Friendship Preserves
Ink: Pool Party, Riding Hood Red, Wisteria Wonder, Regal Rose
Paper: More Amore DSP, Whipser White, Very Vanilla, Primrose Petals, Pink Pirrouette,
Misc.: Windows Framelits, Lacy Brocade Embossing Folder, Blender Pen, Dazzling Diamonds, and more...





Greeting Card Kids




More Amore Specialty DSP



Blender Pens




Friendship Preserves



Masculine Monday ~ Get Well ~ TSOT#83

My Father in Law is going in for knee surgery soon and I wanted to make a couple of Get Well cards that we could send him while he is recovering. 

It's nice to have masculine get well cards on hand.  I've found it difficult to find them in the store.  The stamp set I used was Friendship Preserves, then I used a stamp from Perfectly Penned to cover up the "yum" with "Get Well".  Of course this card was completely inspired by this week's sketch from Try Stampin' On Tuesday. 

All the papers are from the Festival of Prints DSP stack.  It's not just for Christmas, as you can see.  This is a great pack of papers.  I've made several cards with it, and have barely made a dent in it.  :)  I love stacks like that!

I made another Get Well card over the weekend that could easily be sent to a man or a woman.  I'll be sharing it later this week, so if you want more masculine or well wishes card ideas be sure to check back in. 

Creative Blessings,
Heather North



Friendship Preserves Bundle



Festival of Prints DSP Stack

Perfectly Penned

Island Indigo Ruffled Ribbon

Hello School ~ TSOT81

For many of us it is back to school time.  The SU Storytime DSP pack makes me think of school, so I thought I would play with it today as my kids finish their first week of school. 

I used this weeks sketch at Try Stampin' On Tuesday for the base inspiration.  My first thought was to use strips of paper from the Storytime pack, but then I saw this ruler paper that already had strips.  :)  Made it easy to put this card together.

Challenge #81

I added a strip of white paper to make my window framelits stand out from the background paper.  Instead of a button I used a ribbon slide, and adhered it using glue dots.  :)

Sorry the colors are washed out.  I'm not sure why.  They look vibrant on my camera, but washed out on the blog.  ???  One of life's many mysteries.

Creative Blessings,
Heather North

SU Items Used:
Stamps: Friendship Preserves
Paper: Storytime DSP, Whisper White, Basic Gray, Wild Wasabi
Ink: Ridinghood Red, Basic Gray, Wild Wasabi
Misc: Wild Wasabi Stitched Grograine Ribbon, Window Frames Framelits, Round Designer Ribbon Slides