Introducing These United States and the Text Block: Thankful

Good morning and welcome to the first day of Papertrey Ink's July new release countdown (it also happens to be my mister's birthday - a big day to be sure)! I am so excited to be introducing a new stamp set, These United States (with coordinating die collection), as well as a new Text Block die. It's going to be a very full countdown this month! Let's get on to a few projects!

Nichole and Ashley are going to be featuring the Text Block: Thankful die today, so I thought it might be fun to start there.

This first card is a nice quickie that you could pull together if you need a last-minute thank you card. I began by Xyroning and die cutting the Text Block: Thankful shape three times from white cardstock. I layered all of the shapes and adhered them to a Classic Kraft card base that I had stamped with Background Basics: Diagonals.

Then, I die cut the small accent holes in a rainbow of colors and used the tiny circles to inlay a little bit of color. The result is a clean design that you could adapt to be perfect for ladies or gents. It's also fairly flat so it would be a breeze to mail.

My second card has a bit more of an autumnal feel.

I began by die cutting my Text Block shape from two pieces of real birch wood paper. One of the pieces had been sponged with Dark Chocolate ink to give the impression of two different types of wood. I adhered the natural wood shape to a scrap of cardstock and then I used the negatives from the Dark Chocolate piece as an inlay. Next, I stamped the leaves from Leave It Be onto a Rustic White card base and mounted my Text Block: Thankful panel with foam tape. The colors and textures are so warm. I just love it!

Next up is the These United States collection! The stamp set includes sentiments and images that cover everything from a move to a vacation to a deployment and beyond. The coordinating die collection includes a die for each state as well as a large United States die. This collection has so many uses I can barely stand it! I'm going to begin with a personalized coffee cozy. I'm going to try and spread the love to as many states as I can manage over the next few days, so you don't all get sick of seeing Ohio on everything (and I assure you, Ohioans will put Ohio on everything). Today I'm making an Indiana coffee cozy for an aunt who lives in Ft. Wayne.

I die cut the cozy from Aqua Mist felt and the state of Indiana from Vintage Cream felt. Next, I stamped the "pride" sentiment from These United States onto the cozy using Pure Poppy ink. The idea was just to use an ink that would be dark enough to see so I could embroider over it. I would suggest using a color that will blend in with the floss you intend to use. I did a simple backstitch over the sentiment using two strands of red embroidery floss. Then, I attached my Indiana appliqué (handy trick: use a tiny piece of scor-tape to keep your appliqué in place while you stitch; just make sure to keep it away from your sewing path to avoid the dreaded sticky needle). I backstitched around the edges using three strands of warm white embroidery floss and added a french knot in the approximate area of my aunt's home. I finished by stitching up the sides of the cozy.

A gift is incomplete without the proper packaging, right? So I wrapped up the cozy and made a coordinating tag. I die cut the shorter tag from Tag Sale #9 out of Pure Poppy cardstock. Then, I used the Ohio die to die cut a negative shape from the tag. I heat embossed the sentiment using white detail powder and tied it to my package with some baker's twine for a cute finishing touch.

Thank you all so much for joining me today! I hope to see you again tomorrow as I share more projects featuring These United States and the Text Block: Thankful die. In the meantime, Nichole, Ashley, Dawn, Heather, Melissa Phillips, and Melissa Bickford all have more inspiration to share with you today. Have a great day and I'll see you again soon!

Recipes:
Rainbow Detail Grateful Card
Stamps: Background Basics Diagonals
Cardstock: Classic Kraft, Pure Poppy, Orange Zest, Harvest Gold, Simply Chartreuse, Blueberry Sky - Papertrey Ink; white
Ink: VersaMark - Tsukineko
Other: Text Block: Thankful (available July 15th) - Papertrey Ink; Xyron

Autumnal Grateful Card
Stamps: Leave It Be - Papertrey Ink
Cardstock: Rustic White - Papertrey Ink
Ink:  Terracotta Tile, Summer Sunrise, Canyon Clay, Ripe Avocado, Dark Chocolate - Papertrey Ink
Other: Text Block: Thankful (available July 15th) - Papertrey Ink; Real Birch Paper - Creative Imaginations; Xyron

Indiana Pride Cozy & Gift Packaging
Stamps: These United States (available July 15th) - Papertrey Ink
Cardstock: Pure Poppy - Papertrey Ink
Ink: Pure Poppy - Papertrey Ink; VersaMark - Tsukineko
Other: Indiana/Tennessee/Kentucky Die (available July 15th), Ohio/Pennsylvania/Delaware Die (available July 15th), Tag Sale #9, Coffee Cozy Die Aqua Mist Felt, Vintage Cream Felt - Papertrey Ink; White Detail Embossing Powder - Filigree; embroidery floss - DMC