Thank You Cards

We got behind on our thank you cards, so a few days ago, while Ella napped, Arin made a batch of cards.  I like to buy packs of plain cards as a starter and then put our own special touches on them.  I gave Arin four colors of paint and told her cover the front of each card.  Once she was done, I held her finger and helped her write "Thank You" on each card.  Once the paint was dry, I asked Arin to pick the specific card that she wanted to send to the individual/family. I love having Arin involved in making/sending her thank you cards.

Unplug Your Kids: Thanks

This week's theme at Unplug Your Kids is Thanks.  We were going to go the Thanksgiving theme way, but the kids needed to get some thank you cards out, so we went in that direction instead. 

It's been a while since Arin has practiced her sewing skills.  I punched holes in a card and handed it, along with a plastic needle to Arin.  She picked the colors of thread that she wanted to use.  She wanted exactly no help with the sewing.  Normally, I would have guided her a little more on a project, but this was her thank you card, so I let her go with it.

Once, she was done sewing, Ella lightly colored the inside. 

Next, Arin and I looked through magazines and found the letters T, H, A, N, K, and S.  I cut them out because it is still not Arin's strongest skill. 

Then, I gave Arin a glue stick and showed her the order to glue on the letters.

Arin was pleased with her finished work!

Thank You Cards and Handmade Envelopes

Arin recently made several thank you cards. I added a drop or two of food coloring to bubble solution. Arin blew the bubbles onto card stock and we allowed the cards to dry for several hours. Once they were dried, I wrote THANK YOU in dashed lines on the inside of the card. Arin then traced these words. Of course, I added actual thank you letter. We folded the paper in half and stuffed them in our homemade envelopes. We made these envelopes using sheets of magazine paper (it is not easy to find magazine pages without writing!). I found the instructions to make these envelopes here. I took them to the post office to make sure they were ok to send, which they were. Since we made the magazine paper envelopes, Arin has started making envelopes on her own out of plain paper!

Leftover Project Thank You Cards

Last week, we made a Go Fish game, using pictures from some Bill Martin, Jr. books. The picture of Baby Bear was too big to fit onto the index cards that we were using, so I decided to save him for a different project. Yesterday, I made several projects that I had to cut out for Arin, so I had a lot of scraps of pink paper. I hated to just throw this stuff away, so we recycled it into a different project. My mom had given Arin an Elmo Potty Time coloring book. So tonight, I gave Arin a square of white cardstock, the circles I had punched from the pink scrap paper, a picture of Baby Bear and a glue stick. She designed her own Thank You card for grandma. She glued all of the pieces on one side and colored on the other side. Then, I wrote a short thank you note. Arin loves to glue and there were no real instructions for her, so it was a fun project for her to use her creativity.

Thank You Cards

I have waited to make this post until I knew that everyone had received their thank you cards from Arin. I really like to have her involved in her thank you cards. Typically, she just colors on the inside of a card, but this time I thought we'd try something different. This is what we came up with.

The outside of the cards: I bought the picture holder cards from Target. I couldn't decide which picture of Arin I liked better, so I sent half of the cards with one picture and the other half with the other picture. Seeing the pictures side-by-side makes me realize that they really aren't too different from each other.

The inside of the card: Arin loves to make painted handprints and of course I love them too. So I painted her hands and she gave the card "high five". On the first hand print, I wrote "Thank You!" and on the second hand print, I wrote "I love my new (whatever the gift was)".