For Every Occasion

When I saw the subject matter for this challenge, I thought, "Well, this should be a breeze to write about ~ the biggest challenge will be choosing which artsy/craftsy project to write about!" So I sat down to think. Painting? Oops, no scissors involved! Quilts? No pictures to show. It was the same thing with any of my sewing projects, I had never taken pictures of them. Music? Baking? Nope. Nope.

Finally I remembered that I had always wanted to make greeting cards. I had even attempted to do so (pretty half-assed attempts) ~ but I certainly wasn't thrilled with the results. So why not kill two birds with one stone, and actually learn to make the cards while photographing and writing about the process? It would certainly fill the insatiable need to create that hounds me daily.

I began by combing Pinterest for ideas. I pinned quite a few cards that I thought were beautiful and simple or cute and unusual; some that simply gave me ideas for creating original cards of my own. I dug around in my crafting box to see what materials I had. I assembled a pile of colored paper, newspaper, one of my violin music books, colored pencils, a ruler, material, ribbons...you get the picture.

The first card I made took a while to get just right. I cut a page out of an old book of Chekhov's plays and then I burned around the edges with a lighter (note to self ~ do this over a sink, not sitting on the living room couch), drew flowers, colored them in and wrote a simple, "Love you" on it. An almost-all-purpose card!

I made another with the same techniques, and voila! A Birthday card! I wasn't quite pleased with the result, but hey! You have to start somewhere. Fortunately, I can't remember who I sent it to.

Sadly, around the time I working on these, one of my friends' husbands had passed away, so I created a version in the same theme using my violin music instead of the old book. I'm sorry it had to be used for such a purpose.

Some time in May I was thrilled to remember that my dad's birthday was approaching, although I couldn't remember the exact date. So I made a Birthday card and stuck it in the mail in hopes that it would get there in time. It certainly did. In fact it got there over three and a half months ahead of time. It was my parent's anniversary that I had missed. The first picture below is of my dad's 'Early' Birthday card, and the second is my mom and dad's 'Late' Anniversary card.

My long-suffering boyfriend has been a continuing target for me when it comes to sending cards. I have a feeling that I will be experimenting on him for a long time to come. Here are two that I made for him. The first card is a simple reminder for him, in case he had forgotten this important fact.

The last card is a very heartfelt "Thank You!" because he took very good care of me before, during and after the surgery I had last week.

There are so many more designs that I am excited to make, and I love the fact that these actually serve a purpose other than to keep me busy for an hour or two.

I do not expect any calls from Hallmark any time soon to fill in for vacationing card writers. Card making is a work in progress for me, and I am so thankful that I finally found a reason to try my hand at this new endeavor. And, yes! Scissors were involved!