Does this Look like Florida to You?

My mom and dad spent some time in FL late last month visiting some friends who snowbird there every winter. Upon their return to the snowy Midwest, Mom asked me to make a thank you card to send to them. "I'd rather pay you than buy a card," she said. Thanks, Mom! To get some sort of idea of the couple's taste, I asked her what the color scheme of their condo is, and she told me yellow, orange, and green. It took awhile for the idea to percolate, but here's the final product.

It's much harder to come up with a card for someone else than to just make one that you like. While I've visited FL, I'm not a big fan of the state (south Fort Myers Beach/Estero Island excluded). And although I'm not a huge flower girl, I thought blooms would communicate the tropical feel I think my mom was looking for in this card.

Apart from my mom's description of the palette in the Fishers' house, the color scheme I chose was based on my desire to incorporate Groovy Guava double-stitched ribbon into the card. I knew the orange my mom was talking about probably wasn't your true FL orange, as in navel, but I knew that GG would stand in nicely. I also knew that it paired with Wild Wasabi, another of the In Colors, which would emulate foliage on the card.

But I wanted a few other colors, so I went to scraptitude.com and plugged in those two colors and asked the computer to generate all the combos that would coordinate with them. The combo I liked best out of the many it spit back included Regal Rose (which became the base), So Saffron (perfect for flowers), and Purely Pomegranate (also good for flowers).

I used the 2007 Sale-A-Bration set Delight in Life and paired it with Doodle This from the current catalog to get the look I was after. I stamped the flowers on a 4.5" strip and then cut it apart to create the three panels. The idea to weave the ribbon under and then over the middle panel just came to me as I played with the elements. You may just be able to see the main flower from Doodle This, which I stamped on the WW mat to create the feel of designer paper.

One of the new tools I acquired with my last order was the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig. It's a positioning tool that makes it possible to get a stamp placed right where you want it--and straight to boot! That's how the "thank you very much" was placed so perfectly in the lower right corner. I'm going to be teaching all my stampers how to use this tool! For anyone with the least bit of anal retentiveness about straightness, this is the answer you've been looking for.

I'm going to insert a note my parents emailed me, which will convey their thanks to their hosts for the good time they had down South. I hope the card will help communicate what special friends my parents feel these folks are. That's what handmade communicates, doesn't it? You're special!

Go make someone feel special today! Send them a card from your stash, or create one and send me a link!