Crafty

We've received a few wedding gifts and though Chris is out of town, he knows me well enough to know that to sit a present in front of me for three weeks to stare at hour after hour is not going to go over well...so over the last week I've been thinking about how to do our thank you notes.

It really wasn't hard because of some items I had purchased for the invites. The invite envelope was pretty plain so I bought a cute palm tree stamp and some green ink from the craft store. We stamped the back of the invitation envelopes (kind of like a seal) and then just to add some color to the front, I also stamped the bottom left corner of the envelope. The stamp and ink were on sale that day so I think it all cost me less than $7. But I wondered if I'd ever use it again. Turns out I did!

Yesterday I went to A.C. Moore and got some plain white note cards with envelopes. This actually was a lot harder than I thought because A.C. Moore is like a craft overload and I couldn't find anything, much less anyone to help me find anything. I found super cute thank you cards for about $6/10 pack which wasn't bad, but I had this desire to make my own and I didn't want to admit defeat yet! Finally I came across some plain white ones but they were still hovering around $5-6/10 pack, and I knew for that price I'd rather get the cute decorated ones. Finally, I found what I was looking for...of course, near the floor where I had to like reach my fingers in and pry them out...but a pack of 25 cards and envelopes for $7. Yippee! I also should mention that it was easier to find larger cards than smaller ones. I wanted 4*5 or thereabouts and I seemed to come across a lot of half fold sheets of paper as well as postcard type note cards.

Now my original thought was to get another rubber stamp, like the palm tree, that said "thanks." I thought I'd stamp that on the outside of the card, and use the palm tree like a seal on the back of the envelope OR maybe do the palm tree on the front with "thanks" underneath it. Well, I found a "thanks" that was the right size for the ink pads I already have but really I wanted a thank you. So, I settled for the "thanks" stamp and went up to pay for my items but felt a little unsure. The stamps in A.C. Moore are not easily priced. They seem to have alphabetical stickers on them indicating a price range...this "thanks" stamp was a "G" and according to the "G" legend it was $12!! I thought "that can't be right" and took it up front to check out.

Well, the bad news was it was right. And when the girl rang it up she said "do you know this is $12?" like why in the world would you spend that much on this. I agreed that it was robbery but I bought it anyway thinking, well maybe my budget thank-yous will at least still be cheaper than the others...though maybe not as worth it to make my own. The disappointment was tempered when the card packs rang up at $5 each! So $15 for 75 thank yous seemed pretty good. Now what was I going to do about the stamp which almost doubled my cost?

As you can see, I decided it wasn't worth it. The cards didn't need to say thank you on the front and when I played with the stamp (inkless of course) "thanks" was too small by itself and with the palm tree there was not enough room on the card. So on my to-do list today is "return stamp."

I practiced a few times with the cards as my initial thought was 1 palm tree on the outside. But I couldn't get it centered! So I added 2 on either side and now as I stamp the cards, if I'm not quite centered with the middle one, it doesn't look as atrocious. When people read the inside they'll know it's a thank you card, and can probably guess what it is when they see it in the mailbox.

I'm really happy with the design, the budget, and with the fact that I can use the palm tree stamp and extra green ink that I bought for the invitations. It's not that I want to be miserly, especially as I am really sincere in the thanks that I am giving but I don't want to be wasteful or consumerist just for the sake of being so. Or being a bride as the case may be.