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.





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.



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



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



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.



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?!?!?



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!



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!

Creative Spirit at the Ronald McDonald House

Yesterday I toted all my Cranes of Thanks supplies to the Ronald McDonald house through wind, rain, and bad traffic... but, boy was it worth it!  We finished 13 cards (19 if you count my mother's) which doesn't sound like much, but a LOT of love went into them.

Here are just a few of the cards that were made.  Can you feel the creative vibe???  I love the psychedelic stars in the bottom right hand corner and the camouflage picture is great too.  The top half with the pink camo says "my version" and the bottom camo says "the real version."  Cute!

One mom made the two cards pictured here.  The first is a very colorful heart with "thank-you" written all around it, and the other reminds me of some sort of famous pastoral painting (but probably without the origami cranes ;)

Below are three more creative cards.  The one at the bottom is bamboo and the guy colored the origami crane to look like a panda - I love all the shading on his picture!  In the top right we have a blue heart with some nice pencil designs.  At the the top right there is a lovely card - I *love* the clouds in it!  They sort of reminded me of the album cover "Painted Red" by Jj Heller (of course, I looked it up again and the clouds aren't really the same... oh well =)  Also the water is really pretty!

I seriously think this was the most creative location I have been to so far!  We had some other cards made, but I forgot to ask permission to put them on my blog, which is a shame because they were also lovely.  All of the designs gave me new ideas and inspiration to make more of my own... which will hopefully give future participants ideas of their own which will give me ideas which will give others ideas which will... well, you get the picture - this could become dangerous y'all!

Here is one more card I forgot to include with the picture I took last night.  Pretty, huh?  I can't decide whether I like the heart or the background swirlies the best!

As I said, we only made 13 cards but, using OperationWriteHome.org math, that equals at least 52 smiles.  Don't believe me?  13 smiles from those that made the card + 13 smiles from me + 13 smiles from the shipper who gets to screen the cards + 13 smiles from the heroes that get to read the cards... plus all the smiles in between, and if the cards get passed around to more than one hero!

So a big THANK YOU to everyone who participated in saying THANK YOU to our heroes last night!

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