Gather Together and Give Thanks DIY Card

Thanksgiving is the time to gather together and give thanks with family and friends to celebrate our blessings for food, family and all the wonderful things life has brought to us. Traditionally it was for the great harvest that was brought in this time of year. It is still celebrated with a feast that can take days to prepare. For a celebration that large, the invitations should also be big and wonderful.

Paper-Papers, Basis Try-Me Pack offers a warm brown that scores and folds into a large A9 card. The Black from the Sampler Pack is used to for the branch; this one is Memory Branch, Grove Branch. You can also free cut it. The circle is 4.25″ and set high enough for ribbons and a greeting at the bottom: this circle is set 1.25″ from the top. The inset is Stardream Metallic, Bluebell, and covers the full inside of the card. It is embossed with Spellbinders EG-002 M-Bossabilities A-4 Dainty Dots. Use your favorite; they all look great. The branch is decorated with Shine, Red Satin using Martha Stewarts little leaf punch. Any leaf punch will look great; make a few extra to tuck in the bottom and use inside the card to decorate the message. Shine also makes the Pure Silver that is used for the big maple leaf punch on the front and inside. K&Company, Elegant Words, is the greeting set across the ribbons and can be hard to find, right now: I have some in my goto drawer. You can also print out “Gather Together” on the Bluebell, using an Italic Script, and mount it on some scrap cardboard with ScorTape. Use some pop-up mounts to lift it above the ribbons and add a dash of glue under the pop-ups. First arrange some ribbons, blue and black or to suit: there are many different arrangements of ribbons and colors that all look great. The little pearl tips sticking out are stamens for making flowers and insects and sticking into ribbons for affect. Refer to the photos and adjust to suit your ideas.

Inside the card is a Red Satin pocket with a photo insert for a family picture. Scor-tape the Red Satin with 1/8″ tape on the sides and bottom and mount it over the Bluebell, inside the card.  Like the stamped message background, the photo insert is Ivory from the Basis Sampler. It is paired with the A9 Crush, Natural Citrus envelope. The little silver photo corners are from Therm-O-Web. You can add more photo inserts behind the first one if you like.

The Basis Sampler is a matte paper and offers many colors in the pack. The Shine, Red Satin, is pearlescent and iridescent for a great contrast, as is the Pure Silver. the Bluebell is also pearlescent. Punch extra tidbits for your goto box for other projects. The Crush, Natural Citrus envelope is a green product that uses organic by-products to reduce the carbon footprint by 20% and has a luxurious surface for stamping and printing. That is a lot to give thanks for. Enjoy your Thanksgiving.