November Thanksgiving Cards
Hey there!
I don't really make a lot of Thanksgiving cards. That's why I don't have that many Thanksgiving card sentiment stamps and die cuts. I have your basic "Thank You" stamps and then a few odds and ends that I picked up this year but I didn't really add any "Happy Thanksgiving" stamps to the stash. But, I do have paper packs that have sentiments and I have enough things in my collection that I could turn out a decent "Thank You" Card or two.
All of my cards are usually simple. Every now and then I create a really intricate card for a special occasion. Then I'll set aside a few hours to dedicate to faux flowers and special ink and embellishing. For my average cards, I normally set aside 30 minutes. Sometimes it doesn't take as long, sometimes I need a bit longer.
But I can always use the basics to make my handwritten notes. I pull out some ribbon, a paper pad, scissors and glue and in a matter of minutes I can show someone how much I care about them. Card making isn't hard. Just remember what you learned in elementary school - glue and paper are your friends.
If you are just starting out in the card making realm, you can make your life so much easier by making premade card bases. You can purchase them as well if that works better but you are going to spend a little more money doing that. And, I like choosing my card sizes and colors on the fly.
For all of my Thanksgiving Cards, I premade card bases using 8 1/2 X 11 sheets of white cardstock. I just cut the paper in half so that I have two card bases measuring 4 1/4 X 11. I then score my cards or just fold it in half.
All of my card mattes came from my Recollections Hot Buy paper pads from Michaels. The normal price of these pads are $19.99 but they always go on sale. You can get them half price but I always wait until I can get them for $5 - $7. For my fall projects I picked pages from my Fall Embossed paper pad and Pumpkin Spice paper pad. I have really enjoyed these two paper pads!
Because my card bases were all the same, I just cut out all of my mattes at once. The outside mattes and inside mattes were all the same size except for one card that I went rouge on and used scraps as a matte. For a matte you cut a sheet of patterned or colored paper slightly smaller than your card base. Because my card bases were 5 1/2 X 4 1/4, I cut my mattes to 5 1/4 X 4. Don't get caught up in the numbers. It's trial and error. You just keep making cards until you get the fit for you.
I was able to add ribbon and rhinestones and cut outs from the paper pads. When buying pads of paper, make sure you have 2 or 3 good sheets of cuttables. You'll be able to use them in so many ways. I also used some of my unmounted stamps that I had picked up. I have a thing for word clouds so this fall one jumped into my cart when I was at my local scrapbook store.
I always have sticky notes for the season. For this card I loved the pumpkin background and I decided to add a pumpkin sticky note. I backed it on a scrap piece of paper and popped it up using some foam adhesive tape that I always have on hand. The orange ribbon was that extra little touch that made the card pop.
One of the die cuts that I purchased this year was a mini leaf die cut set. I went to town die cutting out leaves from scraps of paper that I had saved. I found a die cut image from my paper pads that said "thankful" and I put that in the middle of my matte. Then I added the tiny leaves all around. You may not be able to tell but I added some Glossy Accents to some of the leaves to add some dimension to the card.
I shifted things a bit for my final card. I saw a card on Pinterest and decided I'd try my hand at tilting the layers. I think it worked well considering no one will know if I copied the original card well or not. They'll just see the layers, ribbon and rhinestone accents.
On the inside of the card I tried my hand at stamping the image of the pumpkins on several different colors of paper, fussy cutting some of the images and affixing it to the main outline. I was surprised at the results because fussy cutting is not my forte. Oh, what is fussy cutting? It's cutting all around the edges of an object. You see those leaves? Yeah, that.
Card making should be fun and interesting. It shouldn't be exhausting and freak you out. My Thanksgiving/Thank You cards are just that, fun and interesting and easy. Like I said before, glue and paper are your friends -- just don't eat the paste.
Do you have plans for card making this month? If not Thanksgiving cards, what are you going to make?
