Autumnal thank-you

I’m so blessed – I’ve been working really hard recently and I found it was affecting my mood – I went on Facebook and all my friends were sharing how wonderful their lives were and how they just couldn’t be happier. I had been working 11/12 and 13 hour days and been unable to fit in the usual cleaning and socialising and I would really have appreciated a text or an email from any of my friends to say they were thinking about me, but no one texted me, and they didn’t reply to any texts I sent them. With my mood the way it was it just felt like everyone else was living the perfect life and too busy being happy to spare a thought for me.

Whenever I tell people at work how my project is going they all say “Wow, that’s really bad luck, you poor thing. I hope things get better soon.” so I know things could be better at work, but to get home and see the pile of ironing, dishes to wash, food to cook, vaccuming to be done and no contact from my friends to say, “Hey, come round ours for dinner, just get out of the flat for a bit.” I was almost at rock bottom.

Then a bright orange parcel appeared and it lit up my life. My ‘Fairy’ Godmother (I was never Baptised, but my Mum chose Godparents just in case) had been told by my Mum how hard I was working and that I was struggling with keeping on top of chores. She decided that I would really benefit from a book she had found called ‘5 ingredients 10 minutes’ as I had so little time in the evenings to cook. It was so lovely to find that someone was thinking of me, and that they were thoughtful enough to think how they might improve my situation.

I wanted to make a thank you card to express my heartfelt thanks. I love all the Autumnal cards that are about at the moment, so I drew inspiration from a few on Pinterest and grabbed my Stampin’UP! ‘French Foliage’ stamp set.

I started with a white 6×6 card base and stamped leaves in the middle of the card using Cajun Craze, Lucky Limeade, Early Espresso and Hello Honey inks.

For the shaker element of the card I cut some kraft card to 5 1/2″ x 5 1/2″, then I used my Spellbinders Circles dies to cut a circle out. I cut some acetate smaller than the kraft panel and adhered it behind the window with HI-Tack glue. Using the same die I had used for the kraft card I cut some white adhesive foam. I attempted to stick the foam to the acetate so the circle of the foam and kraft were overlapping. I added a few 3mm foam adhesive squares around the edges of the kraft card so it would be the same height as the shaker element (because I had made the foam shaker circle quite small it didn’t go to the edges of the kraft panel and the edges of the kraft would have been flapping about with no adhesive). I also stuck double sided red tape all around the edge of the foam circle to adhere it to the card front after all the shaker bits were in.

From white card stock I die cut the Cheery Lynn ‘Thank’ and ‘You’ words and adhered them to the front of the kraft panel with Quicky Glue. I also stamped some of the French Foliage leaves onto some spare Kraft card and fussy cut them out.

Next came the good bit; I used a leaf punch I have and punched out loads of leaves in various colours and put them inside the foam circle on the back of the kraft card. I also poured in a few brown beads, bronze rocailles and gold sequins in to add some bling.

The next step was rather tricky… I removed the backing from the double sided red tape, placed it on my self-healing mat that has lines and measurements on it, then lowered the card front onto the shaker element and pressed down. When I turned it the right way up I pressed around the edges of the window again just to make absolutely sure I had made the adhesive stick.

The last thing I wanted to do was attach the kraft leaves I had stamped earlier with a brown Hemptique twine bow with Hi-Tack glue.

So here is the finished card:

I just want to assure you all that I’m feeling much better now – I have some time off booked soon and several friends have arranged to go to the cinema with me or just meet up for a coffee. If you know someone who is feeling down – just text them, even if it’s just to say HI, sometimes that’s all they need to hear.