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This is the thank-you card that will be sent to all who gave me Christmas gifts. It looks better in real-life than it does as a scanned-in image. I got the general inspiration for this from a stamping magazine called The Stamper's Sampler. The artist had used stamp pad inks and papers that were the same colors, such as what is offered by Close To My Heart® and Stampin' Up!®.

But I didn't have all of these matching inks and papers, at least not enough to make as many cards as I needed. But I had plenty of white cardstock, stamp pad inks, and a rubber brayer.

I decided on two ink colors...Indian Corn Blue and Autumn Terra Cotta, both from Close To My Heart®. I had some pre-made white cards that were a bit larger than what I needed, and I inked the brayer with the blue ink, and rolled it a few times, over the front of the card only. The inside and back remained white, as I wanted it to be. The color will NOT be even, but I think it gives the card an interesting look. The reason that I did not trim my cards to size before brayering was that I had plans for those scraps! After the ink dried (doesn't take long), I trimmed the cards to to size, and reserved all of the scraps.

I then took a few sheets of white cardstock, and use both of the colors to stamp them randomly. The stamps used for this background are from Close To My Heart®...from the "Funky Chunky" and "Funky Confetti" sets. Some of these were stamped twice before re-inking, to create a slightly lighter image.

This stamped cardstock was then cut to size and mounted onto the cards.

I used some of the leftover blue and white card scraps to make the "time to say" thingy. The "Storytime Lowercase" alphabet set from Close To My Heart® was used here.

I then cut the diamonds out, using a Fiskars ShapeTemplate™...the diamond shaped one, of course! The larger diamonds were cut from regular white cardstock, and brayered over in the blue and terra-cotta colors. The smaller ones were cut from glossy cardstock, and stamped with the Kit-Cat Klock stamp (from Stamp Francisco™).

I attached small diamonds to large diamonds to make these *tags*. Then I punched out co-ordinating circles, and attached them to the same color tags with white eyelets. I then made little *ribbons* from the same colored scraps, threaded them through the eyelets, ran the tags through a Xyron® machine, and stuck these onto the card, along with the "time to say" thingies.

For the inside, I stamped "Thank You!" (Posh Impressions®) several times without re-inking the stamp. I then added "thanks" (from "Spunky Greetings" set, Close To My Heart®).

I think this is a good lesson in *using what you have* to make a card seen in a magazine, rather than running out to the store and spending money.

But if you do not have a rubber brayer, it's worth it to get one. This has so many uses, and is easy to clean. I just run mine under warm water, dry it off, and it is ready for the next color! Just be sure to use something to protect your work surface, as brayering can get messy!

BTW...I own one of those Kit-Cat Klocks! You, too can have one! So cute!