Thank You Cards: Khurram

The outpouring of love and support that my family and most notably my cousin-in-law Khurram has received since my cousin Melanie died has been overwhelming. Khurram and his daughter Aalia have received so many gifts and acts of kindness. Although etiquette does not require him to write Thank You notes for Sympathy gifts, Khurram decided he wanted to send everyone a Thank You note. Everyone is a group that is comprised of 400+ people. He was going to buy generic cards, but I offered to create something that was more personal.

This was a daunting, yet cathartic task. I combed through both Melanie and Khurram's facebook pages for just the right photos. I found this photo of Melanie from their Spain vacation and thought that it was perfect. Khurram wished to include this poem which they displayed at their wedding. Melanie had selected it to honor her father who had passed away a few months before their wedding.

She is Gone
You can shed tears that she is gone
Or you can smile because she has lived
You can close your eyes and pray that she will come back
Or you can open your eyes and see all that she has left
Your heart can be empty because you can’t see her
Or you can be full of the love that you shared
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday
Or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday
You can remember her and only that she is gone
Or you can cherish her memory and let it live on
You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back
Or you can do what she would want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on.
-David Harkins

Here is what I designed.

It is simple, but much more personal.

Prior to Melanie's death, I had planned on designing baby announcements as my gift. Since circumstances had changed, I created Thank You cards for Aalia that were based on my original design.

Thank You Cards & Monograms: Mychel & Connor

As with many of my clients, Mychel & Connor requested monograms and Thank You cards that coordinated with their wedding invitations.

Since the Oak Tree was an important wedding motif, I included it in one of their monograms.

For their Thank You cards, I used an Oak Tree that was similar, but had a slight variation.

Thank You Card : Paul & Kelly

Kelly contacted me after finding my blog. She and her fiance had already sent their wedding invitations. So, she couldn't hire me to create that particular item for them. Instead, she decided that she wanted custom Thank You cards. Kelly was very thorough and specific about the look they were going for.

Here some of the images and commentary she gave me for design direction.

We prefer the Japanese Zen feel of something modern and clean but also bold, wispy, romantic and soft. Although a lot of times bamboo is portrayed as big stalks with some pointy leaves, bamboo is really a grass and it has a lot of movement in the wind and is very graceful. Some images that are modern and have a soft wispy feel are also attached to give you some inspiration and ideas hopefully. Our wedding colors are lavender, sage green and some deep purple (bridesmaid dresses and rehearsal dinner invitation).

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This is labeled non-preferred bamboo. This is because it reminds me of stereotypical Chinese/Asian/Polynesian bamboo especially with the placement of the double happiness image and all. It has an exotic "oriental" feel.

After a few rounds of correction, this is the finished product.

Thank You Card with matching light green envelope

I hope that Kelly and Paul enjoy writing their thank you notes on these cards. From the sounds of things, they have quite a few to write. They ordered 180 of these bad boys!

Heartfelt Thanks

Remember these envelopes?
Here are their contents.
I made the cards with my Craft Robo. I finally took it out of the box and set it up . For those that don't know, a Craft Robo is a personal cutter. It works in a fashion similar to that of a printer. Instead of printing on a piece of paper, it cuts out shapes that you designate. I didn't know such things existed. Paola introduced me to this machine last year and I've been pining away for one ever since. I still can't believe that my very generous friends gave me one for my birthday.

I really wanted to show them how much I appreciated the gift. I decided that custom cut thank you cards would be the best route. The cards are a bit simple, but my knowledge of the machine is still fairly basic. Just give me some time. Once I get the hang of that machine, my designs are really going to be elaborate.

Here's a really horrible video of my handy dandy machine in action.
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Craft Robo in Action from Anne K. Rodriguez on Vimeo.

The video is of my original thank you card idea. I ended up scrapping it for something more personal. My favorite part of the video is Dottie running away. She is not too fond of the noise that the Craft Robo makes while it is cutting. I need to stop torturing my dog with my craft projects.