A Week of Thanks

Two weeks ago, while teaching a card class, I received a call from my "real" job.  I manage physician offices, and we had a power failure.  The electricity had already been off for about two hours when I got the call, and my colleague was expressing concern about our vaccines.  We have about $200,000 worth of vaccines in our two buildings, spread through six offices.  So I joined my buddy at 9 p.m. and started checking refrigerator temperatures.  Shockingly, in that short period of time, the refrigerators were already getting warmer, and we knew that our vaccines would be in jeopardy of spoiling within an hour or two.  Since our emergency services and local electricity supplier had no idea how long it would take to restore power, we jumped into high gear, contacted a number of employees and started packing up our vaccines to be moved to another facility about a mile away.

BIG JOB!  Especially when you are trying to do it by the flashlight on your cell phone!

So there we were, running around in the dark, 10 of us trying to find empty boxes, locating keys to the locked refrigerators, piling vaccines carefully into the boxes and loading them into cars (we had 3 packed and ready to go).

We sent two cars off and headed to our second building, where I was dreading the packing of all our Allergy antigen...lots of individual bottles for each patient, mixed by hand.  N.O.T.  F.U.N.

And just as we began the process the lights came back on!  Hallelujah!  And then we got to unpack everything...at 11 p.m.

Anyway, the gist of this long story, is that I had a lot of folks to thank.  So this week I'll share the thank-you cards that I made; each had a nice Starbucks gift card tucked inside.  Let's just say the recipients were happy, and I was SO grateful!

Number one -

To my wonderful colleague, Lois, who called me and got the whole ball rolling.  A simple, beautiful card using the Bold Butterfly Framelits and Butterflies Thinlits dies.

I started with a Thick Whisper White base, on which I sponged Sweet Sugarplum and Rich Razzleberry inks.  The Whisper White and Basic Black layers were adhered together and I ran them through the Big Shot with the larger butterfly from the Bold Butterfly Framelits.  This created an opening in the middle of the card.

Then I cut the largest Butterfly Thinlit using Basic Black, and stuck it in the hole created, adhering it on the base with the color showing through.  So pretty!

The sentiment is from Thankful Thoughts, and is stamped in Rich Razzleberry.

I finished by swiping the brush of Clear Wink of Stella on the butterfly...I think you can see some of the sparkle here.

I'll be sharing my thank you cards this week; c'mon back for more ideas.

Click on the pic below to shop in my on-line store. 


Product List

Thankful Thoughts Wood-Mount Stamp Set

[141519]

$27.00

Thankful Thoughts Clear-Mount Stamp Set

[141522]

$19.00

Rich Razzlebberry Classic Stampin' Pad

[126950]

$6.50

Sweet Sugarplum Classic Stampin' Pad

[141395]

$6.50

Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

[100730]

$9.00

Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Thick Cardstock

[140272]

$7.00

Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

[121045]

$8.00

Bold Butterfly Framelits Dies

[138135]

$17.00

Butterflies Thinlits Dies

[137360]

$25.00

Big Shot

[143263]

$110.00

Stamping Sponges

[101610]

$3.50

Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush

[141897]

$8.00

A Pretty Thank You

Here's a pretty thank you note that went to one of my customers.

 I know many of the products she owns and I tried to incorporate a few to give her some more ideas on ways to use them.

The Cherry Cobbler base has a layer of Presents and Pinecones Designer Series Paper, which was split and spread to leave a Cherry strip down the middle.  But see those little copper edges peeking out?

Those are cut, using Copper Foil Sheets, with the strip in the Flourish Thinlits dies--it's cut in half and adhered under DSP.

I then took the more of the Copper Foil and cut a scalloped oval from the Layering Ovals Framelits set.  On top of this is an oval (love those Stitched Shapes Framelits!) of Very Vanilla, stamped with a sentiment from Thankful Thoughts, embossed with Copper Embossing Powder--so elegant!

I topped this with some pine sprigs, cut with Garden Green card stock and using the Pretty Pines Thinlilts Dies.

A simple Linen Thread bow with some Copper Metallic Thread finishes off my simple, but lovely card.

I hope this gives you some ideas about how to combine some of the products you own to create pretty cards.

Click on the product below and it will take you directly to my on-line store. 

Product List

Thankful Thoughts Wood-Mount Stamp Set

[141519]

$27.00

Thankful Thoughts Clear-Mount Stamp Set

[141522]

$19.00

Versamark Pad

[102283]

$8.50

Copper Stampin' Emboss Powder

[141636]

$5.00

Heat Tool

[129053]

$30.00

Cherry Cobbler 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

[119685]

$8.00

Presents & Pinecones Designer Series Paper

[141986]

$11.00

Very Vanilla 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

[101650]

$9.00

Copper Foil Sheets

[142020]

$4.00

Layering Ovals Framelits Dies

[141706]

$35.00

Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies

[145372]

$30.00

Flourish Thinlits Dies

[141478]

$29.00

Garden Green 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

[102584]

$8.00

Linen Thread

[104199]

$4.50

Copper Metallic Thread

[141696]

$3.00

Pretty Pines Thinlits Dies

[141851]

$26.00

Transitioning to Fall

It's time.
Time to start the annual transition to autumn; autumn colors, autumn leaves, and grateful sentiments.

Here's my first card for the season:

Copper is a new Stampin' UP! color this year.  And I'm lovin' it!  I wanted to highlight the new Copper Foil Sheets, so I decided to play along with the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.  (see it here)

The challenge was to play Tic Tac Toe:



And I decided to run straight across the bottom:  Copper, Banner and Die Cut.

So I started with the leaves.  Vintage Leaves is a great autumn set, and has matching Leaflets Framelits dies.  I pulled out an old technique - Saran Wrap Pouncing (at least that's what I call it) to create a sheet of fall colors.  Using Very Vanilla card stock, I scrunched up a piece of Saran Wrap, mashed it into my Crushed Curry ink pad, and pounced on the paper.  I repeated it with Cajun Craze and Old Olive inks.  Once done, I stamped my leaves in Versamark and embossed them with new Copper Embossing Powder.  Pretty!

I cut an oval with the Layering Oval Framelits and the Copper Foil, and layered my leaves over it (two are popped up with Dimensionals).  A Mini Pinecone (so cute!) was threaded onto two strands of Linen Thread, which was tied into a bow and added with a Mini Glue Dot.

I

The sentiment from Thankful Thoughts was stamped in Versamark on Early Espresso and also embossed with Copper.

The card base is Early Espresso, and the Very Vanilla layer was stamped with Hardwood in Early Espresso ink, then heavily sponged with Early Espresso.

OK, autumn--I'm ready for you!

All products can be purchased here.