Handmade Cards

In this age of technology, it's still a really nice surprise when you receive an actual card or letter in the mail. I don't think that happens a lot these days and I'm the guiltiest one of all. I write to my aunt in Germany, but not nearly as often as I ought to. My Daddy wrote to her every single week because he knew it was important to her even though they talked on the phone every Sunday. They don't make men like him anymore.

So one of the things I am trying to work on this year, is sending notes and cards and letters. I'm not going to promise anything, but surely I can improve on my past history. I have always had good intentions, but failed miserably.

I like shopping for cards and I have a good stack so I am going to work on sending them out. And I love making cards, although I don't have a very good track record of doing that either. I have a huge stash of paper and card making supplies from back when I worked on scrapbooks. Reminder: Get back to that.

And lately I've been pinning card ideas for inspiration. I'm not a fancy card maker. I tend to lean in the direction of clean and simple and I really like using some photos I've taken. Here's one of my favorites:

I've had this stamp forever and its still one of my favorites. I've never seen them since. I stamped inside to add a little detail:

And this is on the back of the envelope. We have a really nice scrapbook store here and one day, probably 8 years ago, I walked in and the owner jumped up and said, "Have I got something special for YOU!" and she pulled out this stamp. Yep. Perfect.

And I used this really silly photo of me and made a card to send to my Aunt for her birthday earlier this month because I knew it would make her laugh...a lot:

I made lots of these baby shower invitations for the arrival of a special little girl:

And the occasional Birthday card:

I made about 10 of  these Christmas Thank You cards for my Mom to send out a few years ago:

And I made these for me to send last year:

And these the year before:

I made my Mom a set of various cards a few years ago for her birthday and she said it was the best thing I ever gave her and she used every single one.

 So I'm thinking she's about due for another set this year - thus a commencement of card making is in the works and the dining room table has been hijacked.

Am I making 100 cards? No, I'm just a messy crafter, but neat and tidy is not what I am after...a happy heart for the sender and receivers of these cards is!