Second, a few words of explanation about my Thanksgiving cards. You noticed that yesterday's card...my first official Thanksgiving card...was baby blue and black and didn't have the word Thanksgiving anywhere on it. My purpose for sending out Thanksgiving cards is to tell friends and family how much I love them and how grateful I am to have them in my life. This frees me up artistically a bit from sticking with fall colors or motifs, and makes thank you, thinking of you, blessings, etc. all very appropriate for the occasion. So I'm labelling these posts Gratitude Collection. Some will be more traditional Thanksgiving/harvest-themed cards, and some will not.
Third, I challenge you to create your own Gratitude Collection. Make a certain number of cards and send them out before Thanksgiving (which means you Canadians need to get crackin'!) to your own loved ones. It makes no difference if you live in a country that doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving; gratitude doesn't have to be an official holiday to take root in your heart. Think of Thanksgiving as a state of mind rather than a turkey-and-stuffing federal holiday. Have I preached enough? Are you converted? Are you going to share your love?
I'll shut up about Thanksgiving now.
Today's card uses two colors that have long been favorites of mine: Papertrey's Aqua Mist and Memento Pear Tart. The clean design suggested itself because of the tall, skinny sentiment from Beautiful Blessings, which contains all sorts of wonderfully inspiring Bible verses and inspirational sayings in a crisp, CAS font. As simple as this is, it took two failed attempts to get everything just right.
Isn't it lovely how the ginko branch descends from above just like our blessings?
In the comments, please feel free to share a blessing you're experiencing today. For me, right now, it's a wonderful dinner prepared by my honey-bunny.
Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Beautiful Blessings, Harvest Berries
ink: Memento
paper: PTI white, aqua mist
accessories: dimensionals
Wonderful post, Susan! Yes, we Canadians better crank out the Thanksgiving cards!! I do LOVE the idea of Gratitude collection!! Recently I came across with some studies (sorry, I forgot the source) saying that the secret to happiness is being truly thankful. S true I'm grateful to blog and and to be able to follow awesome blogs like yours! Love your card BTW!!
ReplyDeleteanother great card. love the colors together
ReplyDeleteI totally embrace the idea of a Gratitude Collection and will start creating tomorrow. Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful idea. My blessing today was that my best friend and her husband, who now live across the country from us, had a 3 hour flight layover near us. So my husband and I met them at the airport where we had dinner together. We had a joyful time - what a blessing to be able to spend time with them!
ReplyDeleteLove your Thanksgiving card concept. Everyone loves to know they are appreciated and loved and all too often we don't put words/cards to our thoughts. Well done! Love that ginko leaf too.
ReplyDeletegreat idea. i hope to send out 5 "thanksgiving cards" before then. not many but more than i would have and still a doable goal. very thankful for my family and our health. we are so blessed!
ReplyDeleteGreat card, Susan! I like what you said about gratitude. Every year around Thanksgiving I feel a little lost, because it wasn't a tradition for me when I grew up. To me it just looks like a giant excuse to stuff ourselves. I know it's more than that of course! May be this year I can look at it differently.
ReplyDeletePetra
Love your Thanksgiving thoughts. I've sent Thanksgiving cards (and Valentine's Day cards) to my large family for no other reason than to tell them I love them, ever since I got married 43 years ago. To me, these are the cards and occasions that really carry my feelings. Every one of my family members know this, because I get downright mushy in those cards. My blessing today was a surprise visit from my son, DIL, and grandson. It was totally unplanned, and we spent a lovely lunch and afternoon together. A blessing!
ReplyDeleteOk, if I'm able to get that wonderful sentiment you had on yesterday's cards, I'll make some Thanksgiving cards. It's not that I'm not thankful for loved ones - I am. I'm just lazy. I want that ginkgo image badly. Such a beautiful card! Ohhh, if I can just muster up about $200 to get what I want from PTI. I mentioned it to John today. He replied, "Next month". Well, next month will soon be here. I'm thankful that my friend, Janelle, had a pretty good day.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of gratitude cards-must get cracking! gratitude today for all my relatives and friends on the east coast making it through the storms. And for a card I envisioned coming out the way I envisioned!
ReplyDeleteFunny you should bring up "Gratitude" cards - a very special family friend passed away Wed. We'd heard 2 weeks ago that she was failing quickly... So often, you go to the funeral or visitation, and share a special memory of how that person affected your life - unfortunately, it's too late to tell them. So, I made a thank-you card for her, and dropped it off a week ago; even though she couldn't respond verbally any more, her family shared with me tonight that she really appreciated my card. I'm SO thankful that I had the opportunity to "make her day"....
ReplyDeleteBeautiful card, sentiment and colors! I can start my Gratitude Collection with three cards to my children who Irene-proofed our house while we were out of town. All is well, except for the crickets who rode into our family room on the potted plants. I'm still grateful!!! I will deal with their chorus when we get home.
ReplyDeleteI make Thanksgiving cards for my family - but I like your idea of gratitude cards even more.
ReplyDeleteToday I'm thankful that although Irene was bad, the damage that I feared didn't happen & my son DIL & 2 grandsons were safe & sound too.
Pat
Oh, Susan, I'm cursing you! I think I NEED harvest berries. . . LOL! This (and yesterday's) card is so nice. And I love your idea of thanksgiving being "gratitude". I might do some thanksgiving of my own. :-)
ReplyDeleteMichelle.
I love the colors you've used! I am thankful for one particular blessing day after day. My 10 year old daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes just after Thanksgiving last year. She was very very sick in ICU for days. My husband and I feel so blessed that of all the horrible incurable diseases out there that she got one that has effective treatments and a slew of people working to find a cure.
ReplyDeleteYou make the most amazing cards, but I think this is my favorite to date! I'm blessed today for a number of reasons-the two boys sleeping, my house, the job, etc. It's a good life for me.
ReplyDeleteA beautiful card Susan. Although, as you know, we don't have official Thanksgiving over here not a day passes when both myself and my husband are thankful for relatively good health, the ability to attend to our personal ablutions and also still have our minds intact. We are so thankful for these blessings day and daily.
ReplyDeleteI am reading this Monday morning. But I am already thankful that both my kids slept the night, a rare occurence.
ReplyDeleteyes, the ginko branch coming down toward the sentiment is truely lovely! and so are you!! :)
ReplyDeleteWhat am I grateful for today? Electricity! As I sit here at my kitchen table with the windows open, I'm serenaded by the humming of generators. In the aftermath of Irene, I feel blessed that we never lost power. And while many of those around us are still without it, I'm grateful to be able to get food out of the refrigerator, cook, take a shower, flush the toilet (we're on a well so when we lose power we lose water too), etc...
ReplyDeleteBeautiful card, beautiful colours. I love the idea of a gratitude collection of cards - I'm going to start now as I'm Canadian. One for my mother, one for my best friend, one for the friend who always invites me for Thanksgiving dinner because my immediate family is 3,000 miles away - those will be top priority.
ReplyDeleteToday is Monday so what I'm grateful for today is the lovely sunny weather, the chance to spend time outside enjoying it, the beans that are ready for picking in my garden.
I'm convinced.
ReplyDeleteAnd that is a truly lovely color combination. I almost thought the ink was a dark egglant, but I like the way brown warms up those colors even more.
Beautiful! I was blessed with safe travel from Washington state to Arizona, actually both ways!!! We just got in late last night. We live in Arizona and went to Washington to visit our first grandchild who is truly a blessing from God!!!
ReplyDeletediane clark
Very lovely card!! My blessing for today was really multiple blessings... first I got to spend the day with my husband. He is so good to me... I can't drive so he is so wonderful to take me shopping whenever I want to go. So, his loving attitude is a wonderful blessing... he always tells me that he wants my life to be as normal as possible even though I'm losing my eyesight due to a degenerative retinal disease and I can't drive and even get around well by myself. And then there were the blessings of finding some new craft toys to use in my cardmaking. I ended up making a pretty good haul due to some good coupons, great sales and seeing new things I'd never seen before for new projects. Oh and I can't forget one more blessing today... we got a little rain that is so badly needed. So, it was a wonderful day all around.
ReplyDeleteI am blessed because we dodged the bullet on Hurricane Irene! It was supposed to get us head on but turned a bit and even though we got a good bit of rain and wind, we came through with no damage!! We are truly blessed here in Myrtle Beach, SC!! I also got some much needed stamping time while it was raining!! Love the Gratitude idea and think I will probably use it this year! Thanks for sharing your idea and your creations! Love them both!
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely panel!
ReplyDeleteI feel blessed for everything that's life! Yes I'm in a philosophical mood :)