Elegant Thank You Card using Million & One from Stampin' Up!

Do you need to make a ‘thank you' card for someone?  And as you picture her, does it need to be an elegant one?  If so, this one fits in that category.  Last Friday, the flood gates opened to creativity and didn't stop this morning either.  After my emotional day on Friday (you can read about that here if you missed it), I sat down and thought about the other people that have influenced me, motivated me and kicked me in the proverbial pants when necessary.

So who is this one for?  A friend that convinced me to start a blog many moons ago.  Without her, you wouldn't be reading this right now.  It started out with the blog posts being all stuffy and full of the “I love this product, you will love it too, click here to order it” stuff that now drives me nuts.  Don't get me wrong, I am in sales, and I do need stampers to purchase from me or else this all goes away, but it was just stuffy and boring!

I tease this friend because she is also the one that told me to be a little personal on my blog – about two years after I started it.  I joke with her and ask her why she didn't tell me that from day one, and her reply is usually sarcastic and with the look of “I didn't think I needed to.”

Is she a stamper – Nope!  She won't even try it out.  But she uses paper crafting the same way that I use the Food Network.  I love watching the Food Network, and I hate cooking and will never make anything I learn on there.  But it is entertaining.  She loves videos on paper crafting and reading about the journey that happens when cards are created, even though she will never make anything she watches.

So let's dive into this card and I will share the journey with you and with her.

The journey started with the sentiment.  And from there I went off of the font.  It was swirly and girly, just like my sweet friend.  It was elegant and soothing.  That set the tone of the card.  The colors were easy to pick out, I just added a vanilla and brown to not only match the paper, but to match the tone.

It started with a very different ribbon, but the more I looked at it, it just wasn't her.  She dresses in the very fashionable layered look that normally involved lace on one of the layers.  So I brought in the Victoria Lace.  The patterned paper started as a circle, but it just felt to ‘harsh' for the card.  I opted for the Floral Frames framelits and it instantly softened up that layer.

I was done with the card, photographed it and started editing the photos, and there was something that kept nagging me.  Something was off, or missing, or just ‘meh' (if you aren't familiar with my use of meh, say it out loud and you will get it.)  So rather than staring at the card, like I usually do, I closed my eyes and thought of her.  I could really picture her, picture her laughing, pictured shopping with her and then it hit me – Pearls!  She always wears pearls in one way or another.  Either a pin, earrings, a necklace, something.  She wears pearls because it is a simple way to remember her grandmother that always wore pearls.

I grabbed my pearls and added them to the card, but in a certain way.  If you tilt your head 90 degrees and look at your screen, you can kinda see her favorite pair of pearl earrings.  They dangle, start with a small one, go to a big one and then another small one.

Once they were on there, I knew the card was complete.

We stampers love to just create, but let me tell you, creating with a purpose is even better.  I am all for having a stack of cards at the ready to send out when needed, but there is so much joy when you create with a specific person in mind.  I urge you to try it.  Forget about the products and focus on the person.  Let their personality guide you as you create.

I have even created a section in Stamping Family for this very thing so they can share what they create with other family members in the gallery.  I can't wait to see their creations!  If you are not a family member, I encourage you to come and check it out.  There were five new video tutorials posted over the weekend and more coming this week, plus this new section.

So what do you get in Stamping Family?

• Connection with other fun paper crafters!
• New project tutorials loaded each week.
• Share your work with your own member gallery.
• Participate in challenges with other members.
• Learn techniques, tips and more!

Ready to check it out?  Click here to watch a video about it and to sign up.

Whether you do this creative process in Stamping Family or on your own, I encourage you to try it out – you never know what you will be inspired to create.

I hope that you enjoyed this project and story behind it – it was so much fun to create this elegant Thank You card using Million & One from Stampin' Up!