Tuesday, August 6, 2013

OLW152: The 2013 Gratitude Campaign Kick-off (Edited)

Edited ANNOUNCEMENT: The Gratitude Campaign has a new name...The Thanksgiving Crusade. We will be using this name going forward. Sorry for any confusion!



Note: I have a photo of the last available for-sale box, in case you're interested. Just click here.


This week's One-Layer Wednesday Challenge kicks off the 2013 Gratitude Campaign!

For newcomers to Simplicity, the Gratitude Campaign is my attempt to rescue Thanksgiving from being lost between the commercialism of Halloween and Christmas. Every year, Target dedicates multiple aisles to Halloween, but Thanksgiving usually just gets an end-cap.

For many people, Thanksgiving is about gorging on turkey and pie, watching football and parades, and taking a food-coma nap. But it was established to give everyone a chance to give thanks for the blessings of life...something we simply don't do often enough.

What better way to celebrate our blessings at Thanksgiving than to give thanks to those people who make our lives blessed? Giving a card is such a small thing, but the words you write of gratitude and appreciation can make a huge difference in someone's life.

Canada's Thanksgiving comes earlier than the US Thanksgiving, so we're starting the 2013 Campaign in plenty of time for my Canadian friends to get cards made. But you don't have to live in a country that formally celebrates Thanksgiving to have your own celebration any time of the year.

If you don't have a formal Thanksgiving, I invite you to join us on October 13 (Canada) or November 28 (USA). Send out cards to those people who deserve to know how much you appreciate them!

They'll feel great, and so will you!!!

To kick this off, let's all make a one-layer Gratitude Campaign card.

Appropriate sentiments include anything expressing thanks...from a simple Thank You to a formal Happy Thanksgiving to something more elaborate, like a quotation or saying. Images may be traditional fall/Thanksgiving images, or something else entirely. Our friends Down Under, for instance, might prefer using spring images rather than fall images.

What matters in this challenge is the sentiment of gratitude/Thanksgiving!

Here's my card:



You might recognize this stamp and layout from an earlier card, but here the card gets an autumnal color scheme and some nice, big dots of orange and olive Smooch. If you're interested in the design, please note that by mixing the colors of the dots, the visual interest of the design is higher, and bling is no longer necessary, as it was on the all-lavender version.


OLW152 Rules
1. A one-layer card is defined as a single layer of card stock folded in half. No other layers allowed! Please keep embellishments to a minimum.

2. Make a card expressing your gratitude for someone special in your life. The words and images may be suitable for traditional Thanksgiving, or you may improvise as you like!

3. Upload your card on the internet and link to it using the OLW152 InLinkz button on the sidebar of this blog. If you're linking to a blog post, please link to the specific post...not to the blog's main page.

4. The most important rule of all: HAVE FUN!!!!


Please Note: When the OLW152 Challenge is over, I will activate an InLinkz collection on the Gratitude Campaign page of this blog, so you may continue to link to your gratitude cards all the way to November 28. After the challenge, of course, you may make multi-layered cards and link to them, but for this week, we're focusing on One-Layer Cards...of course!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts (tree) Waltzingmouse (sentiment)
ink: Ancient Page sepia
paper: PTI white
accessories: Smooch, corner rounder


2 comments:

  1. The color of the tree combined with the Smooch is so beautiful. The tree stamp is wonderful. And I love the sentiment.

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  2. A perfect card to kick off your campaign. That tree stamp may even be calling my name unless I can come up with a suitable substitute in my stash. Nicely done, as always. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday; whether I get a card out to people telling them how much their presence in my life means to me, or whether I call them or send an email, it is an important and loving thing to do any time of year. I'll kick off my own gratitude campaign by saying how thankful I am for YOU. ;-)

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment!