Here is another fall “Thinking of You” card. While I was working on it, it occurred to me that the scarecrow or the leaves would look cute on place cards for Thanksgiving dinner. We have about 25 people for dinner on Thanksgiving. With that many people in a very small house it sometimes seems like “musical chairs”, so I won’t bother with place cards. I did, however, think of another use for the little cards. Because I, along with my daughter and sister, are “gluten free” and “dairy free”, I have gotten in the habit of labeling the different dishes, especially things like breads and desserts. I think the table will look more festive with these cute little cards (N01331), decorated with quilling.

Here are directions if you would like to make some of your own.

Thinking of You card: I used the leaf punch N244831 starting at the center of a yellow card and then out to each side, I glued a 3/8” strip of brown behind the punched border. The little scarecrow’s head was a 12” tight coil. His legs and arms were 6” marquises, his chest a 6” teardrop pointing up towards his head. I fringed a ¼” straw colored strip and cut and rolled 1” lengths for the “straw” at his hands, feet and neck. (I carefully trimmed a little off the back of the fringed strips before I rolled them) I used a 4” strip to make a square for his hat with a small strip for the brim. I also glued a small dark strip for his belt. I used a marker to make his eyes and mouth.

Leaves: I used a 6” brown strip and made an eccentric teardrop for the single leaf. For the gold and yellow leaves I used 3” marquises, with small curved strips for stems.

Pumpkin card: I used a 12” marquise for the center of the pumpkin. The crescents on either side of the center marquise were also made using 12” strips. I let those coils loosen before I pinched them into crescents so they would kind of wrap around the center marquise. The stem is just a 4” shaped marquise, you might like to add some tendrils around the stem.

I used the leaf punch for the border on the small cards and then glued two 3/8’ strips together so a narrow strip of color shows at the bottom of the border and the wide strip shows through the leaf pattern. I always use the removable Dotto adhesive so I can “play” with the strips until I get them where I want them. Since I didn’t have “gluten free” stickers, I used removable tape to fasten the small cards to a larger piece of card stock and fed them through my laser printer. The computer font is so much nicer than my handwriting!

Thinking of You!

I am experiencing something that I am sure many others are going through as well. I thought I would share with you one of my ways of dealing with a sad situation. My Mom, who is now 88 years old, is living in an assisted living center in Florida. One of my sisters lives quite close by, but I am way up here in Connecticut where my other sister lives as well. She is in a wonderful place where she is well cared for and is very happy, but sadly, my Mom’s memory is failing and she gets very confused very easily. For some reason she continually worries about me, and though we speak on the phone frequently, she forgets that we have spoken. So I have started sending her “thinking of you” cards a couple of times a week.  If she has something in her hand that came form me it gives her a little reassurance that I am OK. Her favorite cards are the quilled ones which she displays proudly for all of her caretakers to see. It doesn’t really matter that she doesn’t remember when she got the card, it’s just a way for us to stay connected. Here is the most recent card.

I used a pumpkin card blank (N73148), I glued a 3/8” strip of brown paper down one side of card as shown and then glued a strip of 1/8” rust or light brown in the middle of the 3/8” strip. I then used the Sunburst border punch (N250037) to cut yellow borders for each side of the 3/8” strip. I used Dotto adhesive on the back of the strips because it is repositionable (I’m pretty sure that’s a word) and not nearly as messy as a wet glue. The directions for the flower are as follows:

1 Brown sculptured roll (12”) for center
13 Orange tight rolls (1.5”)
13 Rust teardrops (3”) for petals
1 Green strips (2”) for stem
3 Green marquises (3”) for leaves

1 Green loose scroll (1.5’)

Arrange as shown