School Days!!

One of the things that I do love about cardmaking is the ability to match the card to the recipient...or, in this case, the school colors.

This first card is a CASE of myself with this card but I changed it up so that my son had thank you cards in his school colors for each of his teachers.


It was particularly important for him to give our thank yous this year as his teachers have been truly amazing.  My poor guy had some bad experiences in his first few year at the local public high school, enough so that we brought him home to home school.  But he still wanted to have a school experience so he enrolled for a few classes at Lutheran High School.  It has been wonderful for him - in fact, he plans to attend full-time next year so he can graduate from that school.  The school makes sure that the teachers have time to care about the students.  One of the teachers mailed a personal card to my son congratulating him on his growth throughout the year - you just don't see personal cards from teachers very often.
My second card is a quick graduation card in the school colors of red, blue and gold.  (I have just realized how dull the picture is, but it's already off in the mail!)Thank You Teacher

• Stamps: Papertrey Ink Teacher's Apple, Paper Smooches pencil
• Paper: Stampin' Up Perfect Plum, silver
• Ink: Memento black and Copics
• Accessories: Papertrey Ink Linen Impression Plate and Spiral Notebook die (cut down), misc gems and twine

Congrats Grad

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Blue Ribbon
• Paper: Stampin' Up Night of Navy, Real Red
• Ink: Stampin' Up Night of Navy, Real Red
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Fancy Fan Embossing folder, scalloped circle punch, gold cord (retired)

A Very Quick Gift Set

I went to bed last night feeling like I was forgetting something.  I woke up this morning with the panicked realization that I needed a gift for a thank you party for my son's long-term 6th grade substitute.  Obvious answer - a box of handcrafted cards.

So...I couldn't use multiple layers because I couldn't cut them all in time.  Embossing folders to the rescue.  I needed an embossing folder that added all of the interest on its own - I went with Stampin' Up's Elegant Lines.  It's not been my favorite - but this morning it saved me!

Then...a variety of sentiments - fairly big-sized to take up some of the front.  I wanted a punch or die for those sentiments and I used Stampin' Up's Decorative Labels.  I have other dies that I could have used, but it's must faster to punch multiple labels.

Then...embellishments - whatever I could easily reach...it varies by card.

Finally...colors - I used this week's colourq color challenge.  Obviously, I can't submit this because one color per card really isn't the challenge(!) - but I did want to give them credit.














Time was up at this point, so I couldn't get a nice little folder made, but I did have some appropriately sized plastic boxes and I quickly put together a coordinating tag.

Very, very, VERY simple - but I think it works!!

A Wise Owl for Teacher

Today's sketch challenge at Splitcoaststampers includes an angled panel.  I am not an angled panel person.  But...all that more reason to play along...after all, it's a challenge!!  Angled panels say "fun" to me.  (Having said that, there are some beautiful cards in the gallery for this challenge.  I've been studying each of them trying to change my fear of angled panels!!)

I am very behind on teacher thank you cards for our church card racks - only one style so far - and some school are already done for the year!  So I decided to pull out this big-eyed owl and use him on a bright and cheerful and "fun" thank you card...

• Stamps: Sweet 'n Sassy Owl Be There, sentiment is from Autumn Bounty
• Paper: K&Co Carolyn Gavin Greenhouse and the coordinating pinks are a blast from the past - Stampin' Up's Pixie Pink and Pink Passion
• Ink: Memento black and copics
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Word Window and Modern Label punches, Pink Sorbet twine from The Twinery, Ranger Glossy Accents (on his big eyes!)

LIM: An Apple for Teacher!

This is my second post today, keep reading!!

The challenge from Less Is More this week is a simple sketch and a plea to keep it CAS with lots of white space.  This was the perfect incentive for me to create some teacher thank you cards.  I like to have a few in our church card sales racks and I just haven't gotten to them.  Love the pattern in this set of apples from Papertrey Ink!

• Stamps: Papertrey Ink Teacher's Apple, Text Style backgrounds, sentiment from Up, Up and Away
• Ink: Papertrey Ink Pure Poppy, Simple Chartruese, the text is black stamped off once
• Accessories: Papertrey Ink Spiral Notebook die (trimmed down), misc gem and twine