I am so looking forward to Thanksgiving this year! For the first time in a long while, nearly all of my father's family -- who live spread out all over the US -- will be gathering in one place to celebrate together. So much has happened since the last time we were all together and I can't wait to hug each one of them in person again.

Because we had so much fun with our grateful chain at our Thanksgiving playgroup, I thought I'd make a more grownup version to share with our family. I whipped up these cards last night. I haven't decided exactly what to do with them yet -- printed out on cardstock, they make cute placecards, or else it might be fun to have everybody fill them out and try to guess which card belongs to which person. (James, Anne, and I did a test round -- can you guess whose is whose?)

You can click here to download some of these cards for your own table. Have a wonderful holiday (if you're in the US -- if not, have a wonderful regular old Thursday). We'll be back online next week.

Last year, I made a vow that I was going to handmake each and every one of the presents I gave to my family and friends that holiday season. I imagined myself lovingly painting mason jars and embroidering initials on napkins by the fire all through December. In reality, I spent the weeks before Christmas in a frenzy, leading to a total meltdown on Christmas Eve while I sat up at midnight arranging photos in albums that I would give to my mother in just a few short hours. When it was all over, James turned to me and said, "I don't care if it costs ten thousand dollars, we are never, ever doing handmade presents again."

He didn't have to say it twice. I agree: I will never again attempt to make each and every one of my Christmas gifts for others. However, I think a few handmade presents here and there -- made WELL in advance of the holidays -- would be OK. I'm already hard at work on this year's crop, and over the next few weeks I'll be sharing a few of the gifts that have been big hits in the past and some that I am in the process of making. So that you can get a head start, too. :)

The first are these custom state prints. I was inspired to make these after stumbling across the (free!) Stateface font, in which each letter corresponds to the shape of one U.S. state. I downloaded it, immediately fell in love with it, and started using it everywhere. I made nursery prints for my friends with new babies, wedding prints for my friends who had been married that year, and custom notepads and address labels for anybody who came to mind.


Here's a quick primer on how to make these prints in Photoshop: open a text box and type the key corresponding to the state you want. Adjust your chosen state to the size and color that you want just like you would with any other font, highlight it, and then under the Type menu at the top, click on "Convert to Shape." This turns the state font character into an outlined shape that you can fill with whatever you want (other text or even a fun pattern.) For the nursery and wedding prints, I decided to place a heart to mark the location of birth or marriage and then insert the geographical coordinates underneath just because I liked the way the string of numbers looked next to the swirly font of the names.


Then you either print out your work at home on high-quality paper or at a professional printer (they can make so many things -- custom stamps, tote bags, personalized stationery, to name some of my faves.) Pop it into a frame with a nice mat, and you have a holiday gift that looks like a million bucks (but didn't cost it).

Each of these designs took me only a short time to make once I had the hang of things but because it was personalized for someone special to me, it felt like I was working on something special. You don't need any expert graphic design expertise to make these prints, just the right font and a little creativity (and Photoshop, though you could probably do this in other image editing programs). The possibilities are endless.

Will you download the Stateface font? What would you use it for? Are you planning on making any of your gifts this year?