A Time for Thanks

Hi all. Sorry for the ridiculous absence. I don't have much of an excuse except that I have been busy busy busy! Between moving, starting my internship, studying for my certification exam, and beginning the job hunt process, I have been way pressed for blog time. But the good news is that I have been crafting--so fear not! I have some things to share.

Being Thanksgiving weekend and being amidst all the I'm-thankful-for-you business, I decided to give out some "thankful" cards at work to people with whom I work the closest at the three schools that I cover--and trust me, I am VERY thankful for ALL of them! I got the idea from the peeps at Young House Love, as seen here, but I wasn't feeling their style as far as the printout they offered. However, I loved their idea! So I put my own spin on the "thankful for you" card with some help from Photoshop, and created something a little more me.

(^ sorry this is all grainy and weird...if you click on it, it IS clear, and should print just fine. All the blog fixes I've tried won't make this smaller image crisp though--if you know how to fix it PLEASE share!)

I'm super happy with the way it turned out. I just printed them, chopped them down the middle, and then sliced 'em horizontally just above the text in the middle. After filling out the top card to the recipient, I then used some removable adhesive (Tombow) and stuck the smaller card to the larger card. I punched out a little butterfly from some cute fallish patterned paper, and placed him in the lower right hand corner with some dimensional adhesive for a final touch and a little punch of 3-dimensional goodness. I don't have any pictures of the final product, as I need to protect the privacy of those I work with--sorry! But I promise they were cute :)

Please feel free to download the above file and share, share, share!!!!

Note: after handing out a few cards, it became apparent that I hadn't made it obvious enough that there was a card underneath for the recipient to pass on, so I started folding the butterfly corner back a bit to make it extra clear. Half of the "thankful for you" idea is paying it forward, so I wanted people to have no excuse about not seeing the second card!


It was such a simple thing to do, but I really think people appreciated it mucho, especially because this time of year is very stressful in our school system (long story short, we expect a major influx of work and the related stress that comes with it right after report cards go home, which was about a week ago). Giving people the pick-me-up they deserve is especially nice when things get a little rough! This is a great idea for any time of the year, and these cards can certainly be altered to fit any occasion. After all, we're thankful at other times of year than Thanksgiving!

How about any of you out there? Did you do anything special to let others know how thankful you are? How about some traditions in your family/workplace/social circles? I know there must me some interesting ones out there!