Sunday, October 19, 2014

Keeping Thanks Simple: Day 1

When Papertrey offered a Keep It Simple: Thank You set for $5, I jumped all over it. These little sets of ONLY USEFUL sentiments are an excellent value (I have three of them). You'll note there are no weird sentiments included...just what you'll actually use.

Not a "Cherish" or "Imagine" or "Beelzebub" in the lot.

Anyway, while flipping through my stash of cards, I realized that I'm running low on thank-you cards, and with my birthday coming up in November, it made sense to beef up the stash.

By the way, this year, I turn an even number, which is ALWAYS better than being an odd number, although 47 really hasn't been a bad year at all, despite being both odd and prime.

Anyway (again), here's the first of six thank-you cards for this week of Keeping Thanks Simple.


There are six different fonts in the set, and I tried to match fonts with images that in some way suited them. For this very bold, strong font, I wanted a single, bold, strong image with nice, clean, curvy lines. The lime and brown pair nicely, and the bling needs no explanation.

This is such an easy card that it would be a snap to make lots of them in no time.

What do you think of sentiments in stamp sets? Do you often use sentiments other than the traditional, straightforward sentiments (thank you, happy birthday, thinking of you, hello, get well, etc.)? I find since I started sending cards to Operation Write Home, the ordinary sentiments are most useful.


Supplies
stamps: Papertrey
ink: Hero Arts lime, VersaMagic jumbo java
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: rhinestones

12 comments:

  1. Just my style. Very nice. Clean and simple.

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  2. I find that I will really love one or two sentiments out a set that has four or five and then think I don't want to pay for something I KNOW I am not going to use or like what I make with it on it. Or there may be one person that I could use that sentiment for. I love your card. It would be great with a lot of different sentiments.

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  3. Love your card. I always make my card and the sentiment comes last. I sometimes spend so much time procrastinating over the sentiment I often end up with no sentiment.

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  4. Simply beautiful! I absolutely agree, this is a great set. A must have (hehe...it's on my work table right now).

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  5. I have a few of those also. I like the larger size of the sentiments. Definitely a good value (provided you are buying other things to make the shipping charge worthwhile). Great card!

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  6. First of all I have to say that I tried leaving a comment earlier today, but when I clicked to preview the comment (had never done that before and will never do that again!) it just disappeared and did not post. So, will try again.

    I find it VERY difficult these days to find sentiment stamps that I like. First of all, just as you said, I don’t want much of what seems to be popular with so many stamp designers these days. I just want the BASICS! And I want the basics in a HUGE variety of sizes and font styles so that I can match them to the layout and style of each card. Is that really too much to ask????? :)

    And now that we’re on the subject of sentiment stamps I have to complain about the recent trend that I HATE. And yes, I had to use all capital letters to show just how much I HATE this trend of only using lowercase letters for sentiments. It has been a popular thing for so long now I even hesitate to call it a trend anymore and that’s a really scary thought. Using all lowercase letters for sentiments just takes away the formality in my opinion and since my cardmaking style leans more to the classic and elegant most of the time, I still want the formality!

    And not getting too far off the subject, I have to take the lowercase letter complaint a step further since it is the time of year when we cardmakers are probably all pretty much in some stage of either planning or making our Christmas cards for this year. I really hate seeing all these sentiment stamps where the word Christmas is not capitalized! And seeing so many stamp designers going along with this trend just really breaks my heart. I always hated it when I would see people too lazy to write out the word Christmas and would just shorten it with an X instead of writing the word Christ. And all of the Christmas sentiments I see now days with the word Christmas spelled with a lowercase c just makes me so angry. I most often turn down purchasing any of the sets that include those sentiments, but if I happen to find an otherwise really great stamp set that only has one such sentiment I may break down and buy the set, but I will NEVER use that sentiment! I also love dies such as Memory Box and the like, but lately this incorrect spelling of the word Christmas is also showing up on dies. So, no matter how much I may like the die, I will never purchase one that spells Christmas with a lowercase c! I truly wish other stampers felt this same way so we could change the stamp and die designers on this one, but it appears that all the stampers I see posting cards don't seem to mind this trend.

    And just to explain, I am really not some old, hard-nosed stick in the mud who thinks every Christmas card has to be religious and red and green only! (Although I don‘t really care for most of the cards when I see people get too carried away with the non-traditional colors. Some variation is fine and it all comes down the ability of the crafter to make the colors work, but I do personally prefer more traditional colors such a blue, silver, gold, burgundy, deep shades of green and the like along with the basic Christmas red and green.) But, back to my topic, I own many more secular Christmas stamps than religious ones and I also own many whimsical/funny Christmas stamps so I’m not saying that all Christmas cards have to be serious. I love to laugh and cut up with the best of them, but some things just need to be respected and that is what we are losing in our decaying society. This one thing I’m speaking of here may seem so insignificant that most will say it makes no difference, but that is how all change takes place -- in tiny little increments, gradually over time. It is OK for what we call “progress” to change some things. But, other things should NEVER change no matter how advanced we think society has become.

    Sorry this became so long, but hey, gotta take whatever platform is available to say things we feel strongly about sometimes.

    Now, lets start our own stamp company and design only usable sentiment stamps! :)



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    Replies
    1. And yes, Christmas should always be capitalized. The English major has spoken.

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  7. I normally reach for sentiments that are 'just the basics'. I too, though, like to have different font styles and sizes available. Now here's my current dilemma - break the stamp sets apart and file similar words together? or keep the sets together by manufacturer? Nice problem to have, no?

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    1. Definitely a first-world problem. My solution is to buy more stamps. Yep.

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  8. I'm all about $5 sets, and the Keep it Simple line is fabulous. I have at least 5 of them. I mostly stick with the standard greetings, and I find Best Wishes and Thinking of You are used quite often when I'm not sure what I'll use a card for. That way, they will fit multiple occasions, and I can customize it a bit further on the inside.

    I don't really think there is anything wrong with all lower case. Some people may be purposely shooting for a less formal look, especially for a kids card. Also, we card makers need to keep in mind that many people use stamps almost exclusively for scrapbooking, which tends to be a less formal format. Personally, I'm always glad when I see sets I don't like so I can hang onto some of my $$$!

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  9. I didn't think there were others in blog land who thought about numbers like I do! I loved your comment about the number 47. I, too, love even numbers, unless it's a 5. I do use the general sentiments much more than other sayings. A couple of my favorites other than the general ones are "God Bless You" and "Praying for You".

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment!