Hi!
I have a few thank you notes to share with you today.
The last few weeks of school are always hectic. This year was no exception. I actually thought I planned well ahead to purchase/create gifts for kids’ teachers and then to create teacher themed cards for them. That, unfortunately, never came to frution.
I usually like to make a baked item for the teachers. This year, I made sour cream pound cake and cream cheese pound cake for them. I also baked 2 batches of honey buttermilk biscuits. With the biscuits, I also gave the teachers either a jar of honey or a jar of jam in the gift bag. Yes, a lot of baking. But I wanted to ensure that all my children’s teachers (all 8) had a special treat.
I needed to make quick and simple cards for the teachers since there were only 3 days left of school. Since I had to make them “quick”, I knew I couldn’t spend any time doing any detailed coloring or adding many layers. I recently purchased a few stamp sets from the new company Altenew. I thought I’d use the very cute Ori Kami set. I drew inspiration from this card and this card.
Here’s how I made these cards. I used patterned paper similar to designs found on origami paper. The designs should be tight – with not a lot of empty space. I stamped the elephant (becuase it’s just too adorable) and the crane on the selected paper with Versafine Onyx Black ink. I then added clear EP and then heat set. I stamped, in total, 16 images – 2 images for each card.
The next step was the most time consuming as I had to fussy cut each image. To save some time, I cut them when I was on the school carpool line. And my dear daughter (who LOVES origami) cut the rest for me. Once that was done, I cut the second image for each card into several pieces. I wanted to create a 3D effect of the image. For the crane, I cut the entire middle portion. For the elephant, I cut the tail, the head and the front leg. I then added these pieces to each respective whole image using foam tape.
I cut 8 CS panels (about 3.75 x 5.25″). I then added color to each panel using various ink sprays. I used inks that would complement each image. Once the panels were dry, I added a “thank-you” sentiment. In these cards, I used Mama Elephant’s Many Thanks and Paper Smooches Word Up. I then mounted my panel onto the card and then added my origami image onto the card panel.
Here’s one of my elephant cards.
The following are my crane cards.
I was very pleased on how quick it was to assemble (well, after all that fussy cutting). Just so simple and so elegant.
Until next time!
