Giving Thanks

Being thankful is the major theme in November. And beyond giving thanks for our families and all the blessings God has given us, let us not forget to thank the men and women of this country who sacrifice their lives for us. That's right. The military men and women of the USA put their OWN lives on the line for us every single day. I can honestly say, I am not that brave or selfless. Thank God there are people that are. And so in honor of them, I give you today's card.

My brother-in-law is a retired Marine. My SIL sells my cards for me out in Virgina where they have lived for quite a while. Obviously, Jayne has LOTS of friends with husbands/sons/daughters in one branch of the service or another, and she is constantly looking for military themed cards. I bought this Marine emblem stamp while I was out there visiting last April, but had never used it until this week. I've got a box of cards ready to send off to her, so I figured I'd better get some military cards in there as well!

Over a year ago, I purchased a stamp that said SOLDIER vertically and had a gratitude verse along side of it. Foolishly, I assumed the word SOLDIER encompassed ALL military personnel, but I was wrong! Yikes! A SOLDIER is actually a man or woman in the ARMY, they are not MARINES! So, the stamp I bought was not going to come in very handy for me since I send lots of MARINE cards to my SIL! But I didn't want the stamp to be completely useless, so I decided to ink up only the gratitude portion of the stamp and combined it with my Marine emblem stamp. No one will be any the wiser! The fact is, they actually make the same stamp with MARINE spelled vertically but I don't want to have to buy another stamp! So I improvised a tish.

This is what I came up with. Keep in mind, I kept it VERY simple, knowing that Marines are big and macho and would not take kindly to fabulous designer paper and delicate ribbon! I used my Cuttlebug on some plain red designer paper, embossed the emblem with gold embossing powder, and stamped the gratitude verse on shimmery white paper in black ink. I used a little bit of gold metallic cardstock on the card as well. I like how it turned out, I think my SIL will like it too! Very sophisticated yet subtle.

What's on your agenda for the weekend? We are really busy. We have our first traveling basketball tournament with Youngest Son. Games tonight, tomorrow and most likely Sunday. I am hoping to visit a craft fair at one of the elementary schools near me, and I hope to get some stamping done as well. I'm feeling the mojo coming back, so I want to take advantage of it while it's here and get lots of cards made. Today I'm working on my freelance tv buy that needs to get on the air for Monday. I'll be back tomorrow hopefully with my Scrap Stash Saturday feature, be sure and come back to see the results.

Hugs,

Amy