Super Simple Thanksgiving cards

Last month I posted a couple of Thanksgiving cards I made using images from a 12 x 12 sheet of cardstock from a Debbie Mumm holiday stack from last year.  Here is a LINK to that post where you can see the stack and the sheet of cardstock I used.

These were the first two cards I made and shared last month.  I sat aside the rest of the images after selecting coordinating colors for the card bases and got busy with other things.  Today I finally put the rest of the cards together.

The first three are simply inked on the edges and adhered to the textured cardstock cut at 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 and folded in half for an A2 card. You can't get much simpler than that!  The glittered images are charming enough to make the card work.

I happened to have some gold metallic paper on my work table so I used it for the next cards.  For the card on the right I layered a rectangle below the pumpkins, keeping the odd proportions so the side margins are wider than the top and the bottom.  The card on the left has a layer that I punched with the Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page Leaf set.  The image is five inches so the punched edge worked out evenly.  When I trimmed the images, I took off the gold border on two sides because they each had been on the edge of the original page and the borders were uneven.

For the cornucopia card, I simply added some of the punched out leaves at the four corners.

I am starting to accumulate lots of leaf punches!  These three were all new to me this Fall.  The punch at the top left is an EK Success border punch called "falling leaves."  I like the compact size of these punches and this one has a variety of images in the same border.

This card is yet another experiment.  The paper is from a Debbie Mumm stack and I punched the edge of the layer with the EK Success punch.  The layer was white and looked too stark with the Autumn colors so I looked around for a way to make it blend in better.  I tried out some Tim Holtz Distress embossing powder in "Old Paper" on the edges (I picked it up from a clearance bin for 50 cents a long time ago).  When I made this card I had no idea how the distress powders worked.  I have since watched a video by Tim Holtz and I learned that there are release crystals that are meant to rub off after heating (and here I thought I had not heated the powder properly).

Here is one more "experimental" card.  I had a few pieces of the 12 x 12 sheet that were just small tags like the three leaves you see here.  I picked up a few pieces of paper left from other projects that were still on my table and inked and layered them.  I added some wide ribbon and didn't particularly like the way it looked - so I added some orange glitter cardstock on top of the ribbon.  I don't really like the final result but I just wanted to show some things that I tried.  Sometimes using random bits and pieces and just playing around with them can produce interesting results - and sometimes it is better to have a plan!

I hope I have inspired you to take out some of those stacks and make some quick and simple cards.  Remember, not every card has to be a "masterpiece".  Sometimes simple and actually in the mail is the best.  The people who receive your cards are happy to hear from you and much less critical than you think!

I have been designing a lot of intricate new cards - experimenting with making the same things in Design Studio and on the Gypsy.  Right now I have a hard time choosing a favorite - I can group angled elements on the Gypsy but I can hide contours with the Design Studio.  The hide contour feature is something that really gives you a lot of freedom to make interesting new designs from existing images.  Some of these files will soon be appearing here (and some will show up in other places...) 

Just a few notes - The latest update on the subscription emails sometimes showing text and photos on top of one another may be related to using the Google "Chrome" browser - or it may not...a few people who have had problems did say they were using Chrome.  If you are having these formatting issues,or if the email subject is showing up as "${latestitemTitle}," please remember that you can just click on the title and you will be linked to my blog where the post should appear correctly  You can also stop the subscription and "follow" the blog - whatever works the best for you.

I have also had some emails about Design Studio classes.  I have been trying to answer them individually but I did want to say that Jen has been away on a long awaited vacation for the past week and we are working on new formats that may make lessons more accessible to those of you who have timing conflicts.  We will have some new classes and other options posted soon on the Let me Show you How to Do that blog.