Thank You - Continues!

The Thanksgiving holiday is behind us, but I hope not the thought behind it.  I choose to carry that spirit of Thanksgiving with me into the Christmas holidays and the coming year.  I'll finish out the Thanksgiving theme with today's thank you cards - which of course could be used at any time of the year!  Once again, they feature focals from the Antique Autumn Tags One stamp set and matching dies from JustRite.

I really like the way this first card came together.  It was quite unexpected!  Here's how I did it:

• Brown patterned paper from DCWV matstack with element cut out (5X7 Enchanted Labels 28 from Spellbinders) and saved for later
• Green patterned paper from HOTP
• "Saved" brown element
• Peach card stock cut/embossed with die from Spellbinders' Decorative Labels Twenty-Seven, and a green piece cut from a smaller die from the same set
• I just had to try threading some ribbon through the holes in that small green element, and you see the result.
• The stamped image is colored with glittery gel pens.

This one is not a favorite, though it took some time to complete!  The pink layers - both glitter card stock and vellum - were cut with dies from the Holly Motifs and Accents set from Spellbinders. The white is from Spellbinder's Labels One die set. I cut a lot of the pink pieces apart, and and I also used a lot of the "innies" arranging them as you see here around the focal (colored with gel pens), and the corners of the card.  I like the focal, but am less happy with the corner treatments.  At any rate, it was an interesting experiment.  I finished the card off with some Liquid Pearls.

The focal for this last card was colored with chalks and gel pens and accented with liquid pearls.  It is layered onto a couple of pieces (purple paper and brown glitter cardstock) that were cut with dies from the Ornate Squares set from Spellbinders.  The remaining two pieces were cut using their 5X7 Enchanted Labels 28 set. I used a brownish Liquid Pearls to accent those pieces.  I may add a ribbon bow - it looks like it could use a "little something" else.

Don't Forget the Insides!

Today I thought I'd showcase a few of the "insides" from some of  those "Thanksgiving Cards" that I've shown recently.  The truth is that often I don't do much on the insides of my cards - maybe a bit of a border with papers from the front.  Seldom do I do much more than that.  But with the stamps from JustRite and Spellbinder's dies, I can quickly and easily make the insides look as nice as the outsides!  All the focals in this post were made with the help of "For All You Do Vintage Labels Three" from JustRite (and their matching Vintage Labels Three dies) - for both the frames and the sentiments.  

For this first card, I stamped with Versamark ink onto my blue paper and then heat embossed it with fine black embossing powder. I cut it out and then used a die from Spellbinder's Decorative Labels Twenty-Seven to cut the black mat on which it sits.  Very quick, but quite elegant.

This one was created in two layers.  The top layer was stamped with VersaMark ink onto turquoise paper, then heat embossed with fine black powder before cutting with the matching die (just as the previous one was).  The mat layer was stamped with turquoise ink onto white cardstock, then heat embossed with clear embossing powder.

This one was stamped in brown ink directly onto the inside of the card - then heat embossed with clear embossing powder.

This time I used gold embossing powder on brown glimmer paper.  After cutting and embossing it with my Spellbinder's Scalloped Rectangle die, I took an embossing pen, ran it around the edge, and embossed that with the gold powder too.  The mat was cut from a glittered card stock using a Fleur de Lis Rectangles die from Spellbinders.

The inside of this last card may look better than the outside!  The frame was stamped with purple ink and embossed with clear powder.  Then the sentiment was stamped with VersaMark and embossed with fine black powder. After cutting it out with the matching die, this piece was mounted on a black piece that was cut and embossed using a die from Spellbinder's Gold Labels Four.  The bottom layer is cut from a purple glimmer paper using a die from the 5X7 Enchanted Labels 28 set.

That's it! Quick and easy "insides" for my cards.

With Gratitude on Thanksgiving Day

Again today I have a couple of Thanksgiving/Thank you cards.  Once again they showcase the JustRite stamps and dies - though the sentiment inside the frames comes from a different stamp set (HOTP Tiny Words and Images).  The layers for this first card were created as follows:

• Gold background with gold element cut out of center and set aside (5X7 Enchanted Labels 28)
• Blue paper "Shine Design" from HOTP.
• Gold element saved from first layer
• Blue glimmer paper cut with die from Ornate Squares - small piece cut from center of it, using small die from Marvelous Squares, and set aside.
• Yellow piece cut/embossed with Gold Labels Four die
• Small blue piece that had been set aside.
• Stamped tag colored with chalks and added with foam tape.

This one's layers are as follows:

• Green glitter card stock cut with largest 5X7 Elegant Labels Four die. (Labels Four die used to cut out center to save for another project).
• Gold vellum cut with the medium-sized die from the same die set.  Because it's translucent, you can see through to the base card where the green was cut and saved for later - adds an interesting dimension.

The rest of the layers are really scraps from other projects:  

• A square piece cut from the green patterned paper using a Marvelous Squares die
• A gold piece leftover from cutting corner pieces with a Marvelous Squares die
• Black "innies" cut apart and attached behind the tag

The tag itself is colored with chalks and gel pens with a touch of silver Liquid Pearls.

Heartfelt Thanks - You are a Blessing

Today I've got a couple more Thank You/Thanksgiving cards.  Both once again showcase stamps from the JustRite stamp set called "Antique Autumn Tags One" and the matching dies.

Fir this first card, I used a sentiment from another set in the frame from this set.  I colored it with red chalk, silver gel pen, and red Stickles for the "jewel".  This is once again mounted in layers cut with Spellbinder's dies.  

• The back layer is a plain piece of red.  I cut/embossed a couple of small squares from the Fair Isle Pendant die set before gluing it down, so I could have them for later. 
• The black mat is cut with a die from the Resplendent Rectangles set.  Once again, I cut a black square from the Fair Isle Pendant set which I saved for later.
• Next came a silver glimmer paper cut and embossed with a MaryAnn cut/emboss folder.  I trimmed away part of the design so it would fit within the black mat. 
• I attached the "saved" pendant pieces to my sentiment (cutting the black one apart so the ends would show a bit more from behind the sentiment), then mounted the whole thing to the rest with foam tape.

For this card (once again stamped with stamps from that JustRite set & cut with the matching die) I chose to color the tag with yellow and pink chalks.  The background paper is a glittered cardstock from a DCWV matstack.  The gold is glimmer paper; the pink is foil paper; the brown is glittered cardstock.  I used the following Spellbinders dies (in addition to the JustRite one):

• Marvelous Squares die for the gold corner pieces
• 5X7 Enchanged Labels 28 (cut in half and separated slightly) for the bottom layer of matting
• Resplendent Rectangles die for the pink foil
• Ornate Squares for the brown glittered cardstock piece
• Gold Labels Four for the next gold layer up.
• Decorateive Labels Eight for the tiny pink foil piece just peeking out behind the tag focal.