challenge: Thank You

Whether you are getting a head start on making thank you cards for the upcoming holiday, hand crafting a gift in thanks, creating a scrapbook page about someone you love, or an art journal page about things you are thankful for - there are a lot of ways to give thanks this week. We challenge you to say thanks in some way with something you

I (May) will kick things off with my fall inspired thank you card.  

The card I make most often is one of thanks, because I don't think you can ever say that enough, or show enough gratitude to people who have done kind things for you! Now I love my blueprint stamps (no surprise there!) and I thought paired with a simple thanks sentiment and some basic distress ink techniques and a bit of rock candy crackle, I could have a unique card ready to help me express my gratitude.

Candy's thoughts turned to giving thanks and giving little gifts when she created this practical yet inexpensive little note pad.  It's a simple little expression of gratitude that can also be used as a favor at your Thanksgiving dinner table.

For this challenge, I was inspired to create something that is useful yet didn't take a long time to make.  Tim Holtz' Matchbook Set (the larger one) is the perfect size to create a note pad.  I cut two covers from Tim Holtz' vintage Thanksgiving paper in his Seasonal Paper Stash.  Queen's Gold Embossing Powder adds a lot of shimmer to edges.  The Mini Tattered Leaves and Tattered Pine Cones kissed with Paprika and Platinum Stickles are the perfect adornments to create a festive cover.  You can either attach Post It Notes to the interior, or do as I have done and create your own note pad using Kraft Paper and 1/2" Scor Tape.

 

 

Tracy rarely makes thank you cards so this week it was time to put that right and create a thank you card in preparation for the holiday season.

I am really loving the Pop 'n' Cuts at the moment and the Sizzix 3-D Thanks Phrase Pop 'n' Cuts was the inspiration for my piece this week. I love the dimension and the fun element these give to your cards, giving a little more interest to the inside of a card, something we often forget. My cheery flowers were created using Wendy Vecchi's 3 Fresh Flowers Stencil along with rusty hinge, fired brick and peeled paint Distress Inks. To give a little more interest and dimension I have added a Maya Road vintage wood feathered friend along with a few small flowers cut using the Tattered Florals die. You can see more floral delights on the front of my card too!

Thank-you cards are a must have in Trace's card stash!



What I love about making Thank-you cards is that they really can be in any style, and easily custom made just to fit the recipients style and colour preference. I was suffering from ink playing withdrawal, so I knew I had to pull out my Tim Holtz Distress Stains and make my own background papers. After making the two different coloured papers, I over stamped each with two of my favorite Impression Obsession backgrounds stamps. For the top pink panel I used Sm. Quatrefoil, and for the green lower panel I used Tiny Flowers. I had so much fun making the distressed flowers, I started with Tim Holtz Idea-ology grunge paper and coated it with Tim Holtz Crackle Paint in colour picket fence. After it was dry I added a few layers of tattered rose Tim Holtz Distress stain.

Sandra Mouwen is really thankful for all the friends she made this last year, during her creative journey.

I've been papercrafting for a little over a year now and I really want to thank everybody who I've met throughout my crafting adventure! And I'm also very thankful to be on this amazingly talented design team as well!  I started out making a masterboard out of Watercolor paper and misted it with different Dylusions Sprays. To create some texture I sprayed the mini Chevron, mini Punchinella and Luscious Leaves stencils with some water. I made a pattern with the Thank you Words stamps. And the rosette is the smallest of the Mini Rosettes Decorative Strip.

 

This week's challenge was the perfect opportunity for Ashli to reflect on all that she is thankful for. 

I have a special scrapbook that I keep just for myself. It contains silly little layouts about my love of coffee, to more serious layouts about letting go. For this week's theme, I wanted to create a layout with stream of conscious journaling containing all that I am thankful for in my life. The warm colors and cozy feel of the Ready Set Go collection by Amy Tangerine were perfect for this theme. After layering up some strips of paper and stitching them down, some Pink Paislee Wood Shop Alphabets were added. With just a few other little embellishments dotted around, I was left with plenty of space for my journaling. I love having this documented in my album and think I might just have to make this an annual event!

 

Anna-Karin created a little suitcase filled with inked and stamped thank you cards to give as a gift.

I recently read a book where a worn red suitcase played a major role and it made me want to make a vintage red suitcase. I used the great Sizzix Suitcase Bag die (which fits in the Big Shot, it is not a Pro die) and red kraft core cardstock to make the suitcase. It was embellished with stamps from TweetyJill, Graphic45 and Stamper's Anonymous, and with die cut tickets and vintage lace. Inside the suitcase you will find fifteen thank you cards from manila cardstock, coloured with Distress Stains and stamped with many school-themed stamps.

 

 

Suzz was working on her project watching the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy which made her very thankful for all the basic comforts of Home.

The base for my project is a set of chipboard banners.  I painted the banners with acrylic apint and added spray ink over the surface.  The Darkroom Door Home Sweet Home Set seemed the perfect set to reflect my thoughts.  I added some sweet Maya Road Wood Bingo Motifs and Studio Calico Wood Veneer Birds as accents.

 

Dan used a bold typographical design to add punch to his thank you card.

When I planned this card in my head, I was going to colour the lettering, but once I started I decided that it would have much more impact if the lettering was in stark black and white against the richly coloured background.  I cut the lettering and the underlining shadow layer on my Cricut machine, then stamped the letters with images from the Going Somewhere, Dance Card and Steampunk sets.  The background is from the The Countdown set and colour was courtesy of a range of Distress Stains.

Terry really loves hearts....and sure loves her friends, so she made a THANK YOU Soap Chain 

I was sitting at my table and was thinking about a special friend of mine and then it hit me I knew that I wanted to make a Heartsy Soap Chain. It even smells so nice with the heart soaps on it. I played around with lots of hearts and the background is made with distress stains, distress inks and crackle as well to give it a nice crackled surface. For a bit of a romantic look I placed the lace and the pearls in between the hearts. I am not only loving hearts but the people who know me well all know that I am loving Wendy's butterflies, Just flutterby Butterfly and Just Fly, they are amazing, so I just had to place them onto the Soap Chain. They have different colors then I usually work with but they do fit right in don't you think? And last but not least I placed an important sentiment at the bottom of the chain and it says, thank you for being a great friend.

Sarah doesn't normally set fire to her stash, but it was the perfect frame for her big thanks!

Sometimes you just want to say Thank you in a very big way so I was looking for a bold design for my thank you card. I seem to be in a masculine mood again this week and reached for my Grungeboard letters, Blocks and Destinations Paper Stash and, um, yes, set it alight! I did go for a torn look at first,  but it wasn't quite right so I took the plunge and tried a touch of real fire. I love the stripes on this paper and only needed a little stamping from the Mixed Media Dots and then finished I off with a fabulous Word Band.

I encourage you to check out each of the design team member's blogs for more photos, supply lists, and more. Simply click on their name (above the photo of their project) to visit their blog.

Now that we've shared the team creations - we're ready to see yours! As always, Simon Says Stamp is giving away a $50 gift voucher that will go to a random entry chosen by Random Generator. The challenge will close at 11:59pm Eastern time on Sunday, November 25th and the winner will be announced during the following week. To qualify all you need to do is create a new project that ties in (in any way!) with our theme and post it, along with a link back to this challenge, and add a link here.

For the full rules, read the "challenge rules" posted in the side-bar here on our blog.