Homemade Thank You Cards

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

With the chaos of Christmas behind us, it is now time to get our thank you cards in the mail.  I would have loved to have sent a homemade card to each and every Aunts/Uncles/Grandparent that the boys received gifts from, but as I mentioned here, my boys refuse to sit down for more than 5 minutes to do any type of craft project with me.  It kills me!!!

So, the easiest solution is to make one card, photograph it, and mass produce that baby!

This year, I used a painted plate that I saw on pinterest via flickr as inspiration for our card.  The boys actually didn't mind making this because they thought it was fun having their feet painted. 

I used scrap fabric for Rudolph's scarf, cotton for Santa's beard, and sticky googlie eyes for both sets of eyes.  I then had Ethan write the thank you note at the bottom of the card.

To convert the painting into a card, I first photographed the painting. After adjusting the color a bit on the computer, I right clicked on the image and "rotated it clockwise" twice, so that it was upside down.  (This step is needed so that when you print it, it comes out correctly.)  

I then printed the card on 8.5 x 11" cardstock.  When in the print screen, I chose 4x6 inch with only 1 card per sheet of paper.  I also made sure the box that said "Fit picture to Frame" was UNCHECKED.  When it was checked, it cut off part of the picture.

 Here is what our thank you cards ended up looking like:

Super easy, fast, and bound to bring a smile to the Grandmas' faces. 

I hope they like it!  It's the best we can do.

~Val

Child-made thank you cards.

I love having three boys.  I really do.  However, if I had one complaint it would be that they refuse to sit down and do anything crafty with me.  It just kills me! 

They all have their birthdays around the same time of the year and with lots of thank you cards needing to go out, I wanted to make an original card rather than something bought from the store.

Now, the problem is, there is no possible way that I am going to get my 6 year old to sit down, create 15 cards and write, "Thank you for my present" on each one.  It just won't happen.  I needed to think of a way to make ONE original card, and mass produce it! 

The answer:  Take a large painting (that they did at school), photograph it, then print out as many cards as you need!  This takes no time at all and your kids will love sending out their original art to all their friends and family.

Here's how it all went down.  Caleb, age 4,  had drawn a very pretty rainbow at Pre-School.  I asked him if he would mind if we wrote on his painting and he was proud to offer it up.  I asked Ethan, age 6, to write a note on the top of the picture saying "thank you for my present."  They then each signed their names to the bottom of the painting.

I put the painting on a piece of white foam board so that it would blend in nicely with the background.  The carpet just wasn't doing it for me.

I cropped the picture a bit and then printed it on cardstock.  I made two different sized cards, postcard & 5x7 folded.  I was able to get four postcards per piece of paper. 

I ran into one problem with the larger 5x7 cards.  When I printed it out, the picture printed on the top of the page and didn't fold correctly into a card.  The easy solution:  I rotated the picture upside down and printed it out.  That way, it folded into a card perfectly.

Now all I need to do is get Ethan to sign his name to each card and we'll be all set!  (I'm not looking forward to that).  Wish me luck. :)

~Val





Homemade sewn thank you cards

I was in desperate need of a few thank you cards but had no time to run to the store because my baby was napping.  I found a few pieces of card stock and thought I'd try to create my own card.  I first did a test print to make sure the alignment would be correct when it was pulled through the printer.  The test print had "thank you" printed straight along the bottom of the page.  However, as soon as the printer pulled my card through, it tilted the page and printed "thank you" on a slant.  I put another piece in thinking it was just a one-time error, but as you can see, the printer had a mind of it's own!  All four printed with the exact same wonkiness, just as the printer wanted.  I thought it actually looked cute that way and decided to add some leftover scrap ribbon to the cards.  I used a zip-zag stitch to sew on the ribbon.  If you plan to make one, make sure to reverse stitch at the beginning and the end so your thread does not come out!  

I am sure that now that I actually like the outcome and wouldn't mind replicating it, my printer will decide it is time to print the words straight across the page.

~Val