Giving thanks or thank you

Good afternoon and welcome back for my second post of the day. I am so pleased to be one of the guest designer for Papertake Weekly, you have no idea just how much I enjoy being a part of this challenge blog for this period. To follow our "giving thanks or thank you" theme this week, I AM the most grateful for this chance. So a big thank you for having me. :)

My olderst brother always says you should start everyday with felling grateful. First for yourself and who you are, then you spend some time feeling grateful for those close to you like family and very close friends. Then you end that moment with feeling grateful for your "outer circle of friends and acquaintances" that comes your way like the cashier at the grocery store for example. Doing this every day will give you a chance of feeling and knowing that you have a pretty good life after all. It should also give some awareness of what you can do to improve as a person and how you feel about others. I did those exercises each and every day for a few months last spring and that was a time of feeling high of life. Magical experience, but after a while I started to feel that I know all of this and in just a few weeks lost the feeling of it all. I don't do this every day now either, but I do from time to time and it's such good way of looking at life. It only takes about 15 minutes per day, and for me it was a bit of energy boost to know that life is good. Give it a try, gratefulness is something the world really needs today.

Ok, maybe I have gone to far with this part of thankfulness, but I actually believe that there is too little of that merchandise in this world. The tiny little word Thanks and a little smile can change someones dull, grey and lousy day. Give it a try, just for today, smile to someone that you don't know, hold the door open for someone when you're entering a store and say hello. It's just so simple and it will take you far much longer and higher than you ever thought. Just try it, ok? Well that's my kind of thanks giving. We don't celebrate it here in Sweden, so why not make a new version of it? I know I will and with that doing it will take me where I wanna be...

Ok then, time for why you are here. My card for the challenge over at the Paper Take Weekly. Theme giving thanks or thank you. After what I wrote above here you will never in a million year believe how much trouble I had with this challenge. I saw cards going in orange and brown with strange fruits or what ever it is in those baskes, and I thought oh no, I can't do that. And I couldn't. LoL But thankfully ( :) ) the theme said thank you as well. Got a tiny bit easier then. But still hard, so thinking cap on and suddenly a bit of shabby chic thoughts showed up in my little brain. Marie, you got about a ton of papers from Panduro that you nerver use, take the chance to use some of them and make a thank you card without and coloured image, just you and the designer papers. And that is very I landed with this card. And I plan to make some more of those as I think they can be useful from time to time.

Anyway, I used some spellbinder dies, some MFT dies and an alphabetic one from Tim Holtz. Can live without those can you? Then dived right through my pile of Panduro papers that I thought I needed for a long time. They are nice and good quality and all that but I find them hard to work with and making good looking cards with, so I am grateful I got it together this time. I used an really old sketch from CLP that is sadly closing down after this challenge. I love the inspriation you get from that team, it makes me a bit more brave in my creating. Anyway I added a "curtain" at the top and put a bow on it. It doesn't show that well on this photo but the high top part is laying flat and the wavy edge is raised on foamdots. The spellbinder panel is also raised on foarm dots but now as hight. Gives the card a little depth. I used two different papers from this old Tilda pad and it's all done in shabby chic style. I could had added some whitewash paint on as well but for today it's ok. Some roses from WOC, ribbon from Panduro and pearls from Bunny zoe makes my creation whole.

If any of you actually read all of this from me today, I am the most impressed and not to forget I am really GRATEFUL you did. Hope I have atarted a thought somewhere within you, which can help you to grow as a person, maybe not today or tomorrow, but the day after that, who knows?

Love n hugs
Marie

Challenges for this card
Bunny Zoe - Vintage / shabby Chic (I do hope that this counts as shabby Chic)
Craft-Dee BowZ - Anything with hand tied bow
Created with love - Anything goes paper craft
Lexi's Creations - Thanks or thanks giving