Group Effort Thank Yous

Hi, Friends.....

I am here today to share with you a big batch of thank you cards I made this week.  As many of you know, our community was hit very hard with the wildfires that have ravaged many places in the West this summer.  Our courageous firefighters worked hard to battle the blazes and were successful in saving many, many homes that would have been destroyed.  During this ordeal and in the aftermath, we had a tremendous outpouring of donations by individuals and groups in our area.  

Tuesday of this week our church had a thank you note writing "party" to express our appreciation to each of these who helped so much......some with their time and labor, some with money, some with equipment, some with food, etc.  Around 10 ladies gathered for a couple of hours and wrote thank yous non-stop.  I and others brought thank you note cards with us for everyone to use, some were handmade and some were commercially made. We had quite a stack of them to mail out when we were done!!!  

As I was considering what design to use for these thank yous, I found an email blog update in my inbox from Melissa of A Creative Journey with Melissa.  The title of her blog post said something about making 5 cards in 15 minutes.  That immediately caught my eye!!!  :)  I loved her simple, but attractive design:

Melissa's samples using her wonderful sign language stamps!!!

 I pulled out a bunch of DCWV autumn-looking prints from my scrap bags and went to work following her fabulous tutorial....and doing a few tweaks of my own.  :)  I also used my A Creative Journey with Melissa - Fall and Winter Holiday Sentiments stamp set which Melissa designed.  I LOVE this set full of gracious and useful sentiments.  The "So Grateful" one I stamped with Versafine Ink in Vintage Sepia isn't limited only to Thanksgiving cards! 

I mounted each of them on premade kraft or white card bases.  Here is a shot of the whole group of 30 cards that I took to the party.

I can't say that I made mine as fast as Melissa was able to make hers, but I absolutely LOVE how they turned out.  Hope this has inspired you if you need to make multiple cards.  Be sure to visit Melissa's blog and see the other wonderful ideas and products she offers!!  

Thanks for coming to visit!!!  Have a lovely remaining part of the week.

<3
Janis

Thank you for the honor of entering this set of cards in the following challenges:
1. DL.Art Thankful Thursday Challenge #163 - Thank You
2. Simon Says Stamp Work-It Wednesday August 2015 - Autumn Theme
3. Word Art Wednesday Challenge #199 - Anything Goes Family Friendly
4. Pixie's Snippets Playground Week #192 - Use Snippets
5. Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper September 2014 Challenge
6. DL.Art September Challenge Linky Party  
7. Connie Can Crop Monthly Color Challenge #38

 
ETA:  
8. The Paper Girls Challenge - Grateful/Thankful (This challenge allows projects that are slightly older than their blog post.  Their "Grateful" challenge was so perfect for my cards that I hope they will accept it.)

Holiday Joy - FWF 9-2

Hi, Friends......

I am here with a Christmas card for my Unity Friends with Flair project.  You might recall that Unity is changing things up a bit and now combines their Friends with Flair feature with their weekly designer hop.  The hop used to be on Thursdays, but is now on Tuesday evenings.  We have 24 hrs to link up our Friends with Flair project on the same linky as the hop.

 For this card, I used the Unity - Holiday Joy and Clearsnap - Designer Foil.  I haven't played with the foil much, so I am still getting the hang of it.  I stamped with Versamark and heat embossed the image with Stampendous - Stamp and Bond Embossing Powder and then pressed the foil sheet over the sticky image.  It didn't turn out perfect, but I am not dissatisfied with it.  I will keep practicing.  I love the gold on the black!!

This background, which I dry embossed with my Darice - Snowflakes and Flourishes folder, is one that I've had in my stash since last winter.  (Yes, I usually make extras while I have my Big Shot out!)  I matted it in black to coordinate with my focal panel and mounted it on a glittery gold pre-made card base.  A yummy gold mesh ribbon finished the card.   

Does this get you in the mood for making Christmas cards??  :)

Thank you so much for stopping by.  I appreciate each one of your comments so much!!!  Have a lovely rest of the week!

<3
Janis 

Thank you for the honor of entering this card in the following challenges:
1.  Unity - Friends with Flair
2.  Wow! Embossing Powder September Challenge - Use foils
3.  Word Art Wednesday Challenge #199 - Anything Goes Family Friendly
4.  Little Scrap Pieces - Show it Off Saturday
5.  DL.Art September Challenge Linky Party

Happy Birthday to Mommy

Love those wild, excited eyes!!!  lol....

Hi, Friends.....

I am here to share a card my nearly 5 year old granddaughter made for her Mommy's birthday, which is this weekend.  As you can see, little Andrea is quite into:

• stickers
• butterflies
• repetitive elements
• willy-nilly arrangements

And......

• moving the stamp around while already in contact with the paper! :)  (She probably gets that from her Grandma!  Ha.)

 

I am entering this in the Simon Says Stamp Kids Summer Vacation Challenge for Andrea.

Thanks for stopping by.  Also, thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers during our wildfires.  We had some heavy rain today and only a tiny bit of lightning.  We thank God for every drop.  The air is soooooooooooooo much clearer and we finally are feeling more like ourselves!  We continue to pray for rain (with no lightning) to assist the firefighters that are working in surrounding regions.

Have a wonderful weekend!!

<3
Janis  

Thank you for the honor of entering this card in the following challenge:
1.  Simon Says Stamp Kids Summer Vacation Challenge

Thank You So Much -- FWF 8-28

Hi, Friends.....

I am here with my last Friday project for Unity Friends with Flair.  They are changing it up a bit over at Unity and their FWF will be on Tuesdays, starting on Sept. 1.  To be honest, I am a little bit nervous about the changes they might have in the works for FWF.  I love participating and hope that Facebook or Instagram won't be required for the new and improved Tuesday FWF....since I am not on those particular social media places.

Today I am sharing another simple card I made during our evacuation time when I had very limited craft supplies with me.  I used a watercolor background (from my "marker water salvage project" ) and did some simple stamping with Unity grab bag stamps with Versafine Onyx Black ink.

Rather than my usual routine of simply matting the sentiment panel for putting on my background, I put the snippets at an angle this time.  It's not fancy, but I like it.

I did some subtle clear heat embossing on the background that is barely visible, but if you look closely you can see some little hearts.  Also, I smooshed the same flower stamp I used on the sentiment panel onto a wet paper towel to pick up some water and stamped it here and there on the background.  It "bleached" out the shape of the flower here and there.  If you have sharp eyes, you might be able to see it.  Although it is faint, I think it adds.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  We have the possibility of more thunderstorms today and tomorrow, so please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.  Until we have some significant rain, we are still in very great danger of fire.  Yikes!

<3 
Janis


Thank you for the honor of entering this card in the following challenges:
1. Unity - Friends with Flair
2. DL.Art Thankful Thursday
3. Pixie's Snippets Playground Week #191 - Use Snippets
4. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes
5. Word Art Wednesday Challenge #198 - Anything Goes Family Friendly
6. DL.Art August Linky Challenge - Anything Goes
7. DRS Designs - Sentiment
8. Craft Stamper August Take It Make It Challenge - Use Pens or Pencils

Birthday Cake Full of Candles

Hi, Friends.....

I am back home in smoky Idaho.  We are hugely fortunate that our home did not burn.  Our amazing firefighters were so incredibly awesome!!  We are truly grateful to God for protecting them as they worked to save as many homes as possible.  The fires are still burning elsewhere and the smoke is terrible here,  but for now our community is safe.  Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!!!

Today I am sharing a streamlined birthday card I put together this afternoon.  It went together quickly because I already had the layered embossed background and the stamped image made.  Also, I used a premade card base.  Super easy to assemble with all those things available!  Love it.

The cake image is from an USS (Unidentified Stamp Set) I found at a thrift store.  I love that the images have words in them.  It is stamped and heat embossed with white powder on a scrap from my DCWV Creamy Stack (apparently discontinued).  The sentiment, from my Mark's Finest Papers - Above the Rest stamp set, is stamped with Distress Ink in Peeled Paint.  The layered embossed background uses scraps from my stash and then is dry embossed with my Darice - Checkered folder.  A few rhinestones from my stash finished it with a bit a bling.

Thanks for stopping by!!!!  Hope you are having a good week.

<3
Janis

Thank you for the honor of entering this card in the following challenges:
1. MFP Speedy Fox and Friends Challenge #276 - Use a candle or decorate one.
2. DL.ART Thankful Thursday Challenge #162 - Birthday or TY
3. Verve August 2015 Inspiration Challenge - Celebration
4. Little Scrap Pieces - Show It Off Saturday Linky Party
5. Pixie's Snippets Playground Week #191 - Use Snippets
6. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes
7. Word Art Wednesday Challenge #198 - Anything Goes Family Friendly
8. DL.Art August Linky Challenge - Anything Goes

Live, Laugh, Love - FWF 8-21

Awwwwwww......so sweet!

Hi, Friends....

I am here in Kennewick, Washington where we are staying during our evacuation time.  We have had some scary incidents with the big wildfires that are around us, but so far our house is still standing.  We are thankful to the Lord for that!!

I brought just a very few craft supplies with me when I evacuated......still keeping my fingers crossed that my Big Shot, dies, and embossing folders will still be there when this is all finished!!!  I did bring some layered embossed backgrounds, so I made a very simple card for my Unity - Friends with Flair project for this week using one of them.  Love the texture and finished look this technique brings.

I used a Unity stamp from my new grab bag I received.  (THANKS, Unity!!!)  So much fun!!!  This wonderful sentiment is stamped with Versafine ink in Vintage Sepia.  My background is made from some gorgeous foiled DCWV scraps layered onto a backing piece and then dry embossed with my Darice - Interlocking Circles folder.  The matted sentiment panel is up on dimensional foam squares.

That's all for now.  I will link this up to Unity when the FWF post goes live!  Have a wonderful weekend and please keep our community and firefighters in your prayers.  Thanks so much for your encouraging comments!

<3
Janis

Thank you for the honor of entering this card in the following challenges:
1. Unity - Friends with Flair.
2. Word Art Wednesday Challenge #197 - Anything Goes Family Friendly
3. Pixie's Snippets Playground Week #190
4. Little Scrap Pieces Show-it-Off Saturday Linky Party

Crafting in the Dark before Evacuation

This is not our house....but it looks like it could be.  We have not needed to evacuate our pets, yet, but we have 6 cat carriers ready for as many as we can stuff inside without them squabbling too much!

Hi, Friends.....

As some of you realize, my granddaughter and I have evacuated our house because of the raging wildfires surrounding us.  I hope the rest of the family will join us tomorrow.  We lost power for 4 days....but that is much better than the projected 2 week outage that we had feared.  Our house is mostly out of danger now, but we have neighbors who are still in very high-risk areas.  This has been extremely scary and we owe an incredible debt of gratitude to the courageous firefighters and to our neighbors who have been on the lines fighting to save our community. Some literally have been very close to losing their lives to the flames.   Our entire community and the town of Kamiah in the valley (besides other areas) would have been totally in ashes without their help.  How can you even begin to thank people for that kind of dedication????

During the power outage before we evacuated, my son, daughter, granddaughter and I made small thank you cards to be placed in the firefighter lunches that were being prepared each day by the community.  Here are some photos of us crafting in the dark, with headlights and flashlights for illumination.  (Sorry the photos are not very good quality...taking pictures in the dark isn't that great!!!)  We big people included handwritten expressions of our gratitude, but Andrea, age 4 (nearly 5 years old), helped with cutting the cardstock to size and stamping the sentiments inside.

My chair is vacant, since I am taking the photos.

  

My daughter, Betsy, and her daughter, Andrea.

 

My son, James, who also has worked like crazy to help secure our property.

Here are our cards all in a pile.  Some of the 4 yr old stamping is a tad bit catty-whompus!  :)

These extremely small tokens of our thanks can never approach expressing our appreciation to these brave people for risking their lives for us.  We are humbled and so grateful to the Lord for His protection.  So far our house has been spared.  We don't know what the next few days will hold.  We appreciate your prayers for the safety of our communities and for that of all firefighters across the West who are giving such dedicated service.  

We can never repay you brave people, but we give you our undying thanks.

<3 
Janis 

Thank you for the honor of entering this project in the following challenges:
1. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Kids Summer Vacation Challenge  

2. DL.ART Thankful Thursday Challenge #162 - Thank You
3. Little Scrap Pieces - Show it Off Saturday Linky Party