Welcome!

I devised this "Cranes of Thanks" project because I love origami, working with children, and the "heroes" that defend our country!  I am teaching youth to fold paper origami cranes which will be placed on a coloring page with a letter on the back to be sent to our soldiers overseas.  This project will continue until we have completed 1,000 Cranes of Thanks!  All of the supplies have generously been funded by DoSomething.org.

Click HERE for some examples of children's coloring pages.
Click HERE for examples of what teens could make.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Cranes of Thanks Note Cards

Hey all!

Well, I've been creating some simple note cards to bring to locations that just want to do signings.  Usually I have the kids make coloring pages and the adults and teens spend time designing their own cards, but sometimes people only have time to write a note of thanks.

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I call this design the "Framed Crane."  There is one 3x3" sheet of origami paper as the bottom layer, a slightly smaller square of white card stock glued on top of that, and finally the crane.  I really like how this design is incredibly simple to make, but it also looks very elegant.

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The best part is the "Framed Crane" design can be horizontal or vertical to suit your needs.

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I also like to make the Framed Crane with monochromatic paper.

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I don't like folding cranes with black paper (for some reason it just seems wrong?)  But using black origami paper looks nice as a frame for other papers.

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I wonder if anyone has any opinions on this notecard?  It is really simple, but I don't want it to look too simple.  I would most likely make this design if I was at a location and we needed more cards quickly!  I really wish I had a nice set of flourish stamps, I could put one in the bottom left corner to sort of jazz it up... hmm, maybe an excuse to go to a scrapbooking store soon?!?!?

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I also experimented with some stamps and a single crane.  This is a better way to conserve origami paper and glue so I can make plenty of cards.  I think this looks a little more dressed up then the last card.  I also like the picture of the card better then the card in real life... not sure how that happened!

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My only complaint about this card is finicky - I wish the "thanks" was just a smidge lower... I'll fix that next time!

I have a few card signing events coming up, so I'm really hoping to create some more of these!  In other news, 12 more "Cranes of Thanks" coloring pages were created by children at a church.  They did not go to Operation Write Home (where I usually send the letters) because the children were also making care packages for soldiers.

Some future things to look for: I will be writing a post with tips on how to write letters to our heroes beyond simply saying "thank-you."  I am thinking of redesigning the blog - but that may come later since these upcoming weeks are busy.  Also, I will try to post some pictures of new cards made by locations involved with the project.

Thanks for reading!

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