Autumn and Thanksgiving Cards

The leaves have turned colors and are covering my lawn. The sky is gray and heavy with rain. It’s time to pull out the colored pencils and crayons to brighten the world with a little happy mail! Our service project this month was to create Thanksgiving cards for the homebound seniors in our church. We haven’t had many meetings yet this year, so the club wasn’t able to make very many cards yet. Fortunately, I have a couple of pathfinders who enjoy making cards – especially when it means using mom’s watercolor paint..

What do I do with these card printables?

For specifics on how to make the cards and for Christmas/Winter cards, check out this post. For ideas about who your club can give cards to and for Easter/Spring cards, check out this post.

There are three pages of card fronts (in two cutting options) and three pages of cards inserts. There are religious Thanksgiving cards, religion-neutral Thanksgiving cards, and one set of religion-neutral Autumn cards. All of the cards will be appropriate for church members, and you could mix and match the fronts and inserts. If your cards are going to an organization that can’t accept religious cards, you’ll want to use either religion-neutral set. The autumn cards do not mention Thanksgiving – ideal for non-holiday purposes or clubs who don’t live in a Thanksgiving-celebrating country. (If you live in the southern hemisphere, the spring cards might be a better fit. Come back to this post in March..)

I also like to keep some blank squares in my bag for artists and writers. Some kids will love drawing their own pictures or write their own messages. I don’t run into these kids in my club very often, but I always like to be prepared.

What about Little Lambs and Eager Beavers? Can they make cards too?

My youngest Adventurers (Eager Beavers this year) LOVE stickers! I made two sticker pack options for them – Thanksgiving and Autumn. If you don’t have a machine that can make stickers, don’t stress about it. You can hand them the regular cards and some colored pencils and let them go wild.

If you do have a cutting machine, Online Labels is my favorite sticker paper. It’s a nicer quality than Avery and less expensive! This short video has a little tip to make it easier for your littlest Adventurers to not rip the stickers.

Did you say paint?!

My kids and I had fun painting a few of these designs. That said, I’d be cautious about painting them in a club setting. I print mine on cardstock with an inkjet printer. Cardstock is not made for watercolors. (One of these days I’m going to try printing on watercolor paper..) The paper will warp and the printer ink can smear when it encounters water. (Using your church’s photocopier should fix the smearing ink issue.) I warned my boys about these potential issues, they kept their brushes as dry as possible, and minor warping was our only issue.

These kids are older (11-15 years old), and were painting at home. If I were to paint these cards in a club setting, I think I’d limit it to Builders and Helping Hands. That said, you know your kids best!

Files

There are two types of file below: A PDF and Silhouette Cut Files. The PDF has two versions of each page. One page has a colored border. This border is meant to be cut off and is only there to help you line everything up on your paper trimmer. For people who don’t find these heavy lines helpful, there is a borderless version. Each side of the picture will need to be trimmed. If you just cut them apart by cutting through the middle, nothing will be centered.

The Silhouette Zip Folder is for people with a cutting machine that can read Silhouette Files. One folder has all of the card fronts and inserts ready for you to print and cut. The other folder has the two sticker packs.

If you use these printables, could you do me a favor and come back and comment about how they worked for your club? I’d love to hear about your experience.