November 25, 2014

Printable Thanksgiving Thoughts


These Thanksgiving Thoughts that you can print out at your
home or office are a twist on the printables I have seen
offered by other bloggers in the past three years. 

They provide beautiful printables with color backgrounds,
fonts, etc. already built in.  But what if you are like me and
get sticker shock when you buy color cartridges for your
color printer?  I avoid printing on my color printer because
it costs so much.  Or you might only have a laser or ink
jet printer that only prints black.  

With these printables the text will be black but you provide
the color by the paper that you choose to print on. 
Most scrapbook paper is cheap compared to color cartridges.
Each of these scrapbook papers was only 18 cents a piece on sale at Michael's. 

Another advantage of this type printable is that you get to 
choose the color and feel (traditional, contemporary, etc.)
of the printable to match the decor of your home by the
paper that you choose. 

Some scrapbook papers come in the 8.5" x 11" size that most
home printers accept. There is a larger selection of papers in
most stores of the 12" x 12" size, however. All you have to do
if you like a larger size in a paper is to cut it down to the size
 of paper that will run through your computer.

Measure and draw lines on the "wrong side" of the paper
if there is one.  If the paper has a white edge for information
purposes, be sure to note that you are cutting that end off
and not the "good" end. 

I spent literally hours trying to figure out how to make a 
printable that you could just print off of the computer
screen but I was not successful. Well, you CAN print these
off of the screen without downloading them but (at least in
my trials of doing that) they were on the edges of the paper
I like to have control of the margins of the things
that I print and you probably do too. 

So, the best way to use these printables is to 
download them to your computer.  Hover over the printable
in this blog post with your computer mouse.  An option 
should come up that says "Save Image As". Click it. 
All I know is how my computer works. I hope your computer look similar 'cause I don't know
how to help you if  you need help downloading and printing these out if it is different.

If you already know how to download and print, skip the next few paragraphs. I, myself am a computer
dummy and appreciate when folks offer step-by-step computer instructions to complete a project.

For example, the printable that looks similar to a proclamation
in 1723 is titled "Thanksgiving Proclamation". You can
change the title of it for your computer, you can by typing 
another title in the "name" box. Then hit the "save" button. 

I ended up making these text printables in Pic Monkey's
"design" mode. Your computer will read the printable as
a picture in jpg. format since Pic Monkey is a photo
editing site. 

On my computer I can look at the "Download" section
to find the file on my computer...is yours the same?
I can click "show in folder" to see it's icon in the download file.

If I want to move the printable to another file so I can remember where it is easier for future use, I can highlight the individual  printable's icon in the  download file by clicking on it,  hold down the "control" key and the "c" key
  at the same  time and then hit enter.  Then go to the file that I want to move it to.
  I hold down the "control" key and "v" key at the same time and hit "enter" to move it. 

When the printable is on the screen, go to the button where
your computer says "print".  Mine is under the "file" tab. 

Since these printables are in jpg. the computer sees them as
a photo. In the screen shot below it shows me how the 
printable would look if I print it in "full page" mode:


Here's how it will look on the paper if I print it as a 4"x6":


Here's how it will look on the paper if I print it as a 5"x7":

I found out that if I want the printable to be put in a frame 
that holds a 5"x7" picture, the printable looks better printed
out in the 4"x6" format so that there is some space
around the edges of the text.

Here's how the proclamation looks printed on the 
antique-looking paper as a full sheet coming off the printer:

Since the paper is 8.5"x11", it needs to be trimmed down
if it is going to be put in a frame that holds a 8"x10" photo.

Keep the paper the 8.5"x11" size to run it through the printer
so it won't slip side to side while printing and then cut it to 
the size you need if you are putting the printable in a frame. 

If you are printing the sayings/thoughts in the smaller sizes
you can get more than one on a sheet of paper if you turn the
paper on different print runs. You might want to do a test run
on a blank sheet of cheap white paper first to figure out
how to turn the paper so you don't do an over-print like this:

I wasn't sure that the ink would stick to the 
metallic-colored scrapbook paper but it did.

So I used the other end for another printing.
They will be cut apart and used separately.




An easy way to decide where to cut the paper to center the
text in a frame is to use the picture or cardboard filler that
comes with the frame as a template. Hold them behind the
printed out text up to a light source to see where you 
want to cut the paper.
this is a bad and fuzzy photo...I was trying to be the hand model and photographer at the same time

If the paper is too thick to use the light source trick, you can
still use the frame's original innards to help decide where
to cut your paper by moving it around on the front side.

You can vary how your printable looks by the type of paper
and frame that you choose. 





Of course, you don't have to frame the printables. You can 
prop them up against other accessories...

...or scatter them in vignettes or on your Thanksgiving table.

Here are the printables to download and use as a quick,
easy and very inexpensive way to add some last-minute
 thankful quotes/verses to your home:


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This is my first attempt to offer printables...I hope that it
works for you...it did in my test runs.  If you want to see
the main way I used these thoughts and verses in my 
home you can click on the following highlighted
 text to see the blog post 


I hope you have a blessed Thanksgiving week!

I am sharing this post at these blog parties:
A Stroll Thru Life's  Inspire Me Tuesday
Savvy Southern Style's Wow Us Wednesday

November 14, 2014

Decorating With Thanksgiving Thoughts


Thanks to Sherry at No Minimalist Here blog, I am happy to be
part of her Thanksgiving Vignette blog hop.

 Please check out the links to all the other participants in
 the blog hop at the end of the post.  


The Pilgrims hosted the first Thanksgiving in 1621 in
order to have a special time of giving thanks to God for
His provision for them.  As we carry on that tradition,
I wanted some Thanksgiving Thoughts to be up in my
home to remind me to also give thanks. 

Most of my thoughts that have special meaning to me are
Bible verses but you could decorate with thankful quotes
or sayings that have meaning to you.  

For this vignette, I wanted the thankful thoughts to have a look
that they might have come over on the boats with the Pilgrims.

After composing the thoughts in fancy fonts on my computer,
I ran them through the printer one at a time on the aged paper.
Then cut them out to be a smaller size than the full sheet of 
paper they were printed on.  

If you want to use the Thanksgiving Thoughts that are in
this vignette, the blog post Printable Thanksgiving Thoughts
has them ready for you to download and print on your
choice of paper.  

A couple of years ago I made the chicken wire frames to hold
Christmas cards but I have left them up ever since and 
decorated them for different seasons.  The thoughts are 
attached to the chicken wire with tiny wooden clothespins.

In keeping with the lighter tones in this vignette, I wanted to 
try making some plaster leaves that I had seen Jane at
Cottage At The Crossroads blog make a couple of years ago. 

The plaster leaves give another Fall element to the printed out
sayings/verses on the chicken wire display. 


The candlesticks that are holding the pretty green pumpkins
were purchased from the clearance shelves and Hobby 
Lobby.  The middle of the candlesticks were a glassy pink.
They got a neutral color distressed and crackled paint job. 



The Thanksgiving Thoughts can be used in different places
around your home.  If you print them on card stock, they 
have enough stiffness to lean up against an object.

Or you can place them within other vignettes or even on 
your Thanksgiving dinner table. 

The other blogs in the Thanksgiving Vignette Blog Hop
today with me are

Other blogs in the hop that have shared their vignettes are

They are all wonderful posts...you don't want to miss them!

Thanks for coming by to see my Thanksgiving Thoughts!

I'm sharing this post also at these blog parties:
A Stroll Thru Life's Inspire Me Tuesday
Savvy Southern Style's Wow Us Wednesday


November 10, 2014

A Golden Touch Thanksgiving Table


Are you having lots of company for Thanksgiving dinner?
Last year our whole family traveled from around the country
to spend Thanksgiving in El Paso, Texas, with my son, his
wife Caroline, and their daughter, Lilly. Caroline did a great
job of setting a beautiful, long table for everyone to sit
together to eat.  Here are some ideas that she used to have
coordinated look for the table(s) used in seating a crowd.

Even though there were actually two different tables used
for Thanksgiving dinner, Caroline purchased matching
tablecloths to use to give the effect that it was one long table.

Most of the items on the table had at least touch of gold.
That tied all the elements of the table together.

She cleverly spray painted pumpkins left over from 
Halloween in a couple of different shades of gold.
To add even more sparkle to the pumpkins, they even
 got a quick spritz of spray glitter too.  

The ceramic turkeys on either side of the above-pictured
large pumpkin came from the store with 
a touch of gold already on them...perfect. 


The faux leaves came ready to go also from a craft store
with a slight metallic sheen to them.  The leaves continued 
down the length of the table(s) to visually tie them together. 
A long runner would give the same effect.

The small votive holders were golden and amber colors.
Even the mercury glass candle holders had a gold tone
near their base below the silver color higher up.

Gold chargers held Caroline's grandmother's dinner plates
which had gold in the design.  Our beverage glasses had
a golden rim. The napkins' pattern had a blend of orange
and gold colors. 


For place cards, Caroline and Lilly made paper turkeys 
website.  A good idea they incorporated was to use a 
paper that had an autumn design on both sides so that
the person sitting on the other side of the table also sees a
pattern and not a white backside of a turkey place card.

Not only did Caroline set a beautiful table, all of the food
she prepared was just divine!!!

A beautiful golden glow to the dining room was provided by
 God with the spectacular sunset out the dining room windows.
"Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good."
Psalm 136:1

Using only a couple of colors (Caroline used gold and orange)
and repeating elements on a long table will give it a
elegant and coordinated look for Thanksgiving or any holiday. 

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