Rustic DIY Thank You Cards

These Rustic DIY Thank You Cards were made because this past month my husband and me went away together for a belated Anniversary trip. For the first time in over 5 years – yes 5 years, that’s not a typo – we got away overnight for two whole nights to Blue Mountain.

My mom graciously offered to drive from my parents home (which is over a 3 hour commute) to watch the kids during that time. She wound up staying a week so we could get a whole bunch of overdue mini home fix up’s done as well. Believe me when I say a Thank You card is the least I could do for her.

How to make Rustic DIY Thank You Cards

Now knowing my mom, who is the type of mom to return Christmas presents I bought her as a teenager and then spend the money back on me, would ask me why on earth I would send her a Thank You card. She’d be the first to say “That’s too formal, what’s wrong with you?”

Yes she’s that mom. She feels it’s her civic duty to help. So I figured I’ll make the card anyway and then get my daughter to write in a Thank You to her as a Grandma Thanks for staying with me card. That way it’s “not from me”.

Because I was testing out the baking soda dough recipe for Christmas ornaments that we’re making this year, I got an idea to make some to use for these Thank You cards.

Here’s what I did and what you’ll need to do this:

• Baking Soda
• Cornstarch
• Water
• Cardstock
• Twine
• Yarn (your color choice)
• Mini screwdriver set
• Stamps
• Dye ink pad

UPDATED: For those interested in a Step by Step Tutorial on how to make the Baking Soda Dough ornaments, I finally wrote up a picture tutorial for them which you can find here.

I tested out making some dough ornaments using various cookie cutters – my daughter found the Easter ones. I am sure Bunnies like Fall too. Don’t even ask. And then I tried out stamping and writing on them to see what worked and what didn’t.

I actually wound up using my TEKTON metal stamp set to do the small letters and regular alphabet stamp set for the bigger ornaments.

I let them air dry overnight and they were still a bit wet on the back the day after.

If you do these I do recommend at least 2 days of drying time. You can bake them in the oven for an hour at various degrees depending on their thickness if you want them to dry faster.

I didn’t do this because if I can burn my fries there’s a good chance I’d find a way to set these on fire so I just let them air dry overnight.

TIP: Make sure to stamp your holes when the dough is wet and not dry.

I used a screwdriver from my mini screwdriver set.  Then when they are almost fully dry, twist the screwdriver into the hole again to ensure a flush clean hole in the ornament.

I laid my ornaments on the card and marked where I wanted them to be tied to the card with my threads.

Poked the holes.

I then cut out 2 pieces of yarn and twine in equal lengths for my bow tie.

The hole in the ornament was very small and in order to get two pieces of twine/yarn threaded through it, I taped the ends of the twine/yarn together and cut the end diagonally.

This made it much easier to get the twine/yarn through the holes. I did this on both ends of the threads.

I then twisted the threads through the hole.

NOTE:

Do not push them through with a lot of force, because you may break your ornament.

Threaded the twine through the ornaments.

Repeated on the other side.

And then made several different versions because I couldn’t decide which one I liked the most.

These would make a great Christmas Card idea. Just make a dough ornament themed for the holidays, tie it to the card and then on the inside of the card add a small clear bag with ribbon or thread for the recipient to use to hang on their tree (just in case twine/yarn isn’t their thing). I like rustic but I have friends who make their Christmas trees look like a Swarovski Christmas Tree replica.

In this day and age where we get evites and text messages 24/7, sometimes it’s nice to turn back the clock to a more tactile time. And what better way to say Thank You than a hand made card to show your gratitude for those that took the time to help you.