"Scrappy" greeting cards and some basic attempt at creativity...

Hello good friends! It's a pretty rainy day outside (I guess that's better than snow!), so I thought I would stay in and use up some of the scraps on my work table, and then clean up altogether before my trip.

Do you ever stop and think about all the art supplies that you have on hand, and then go out and BUY greeting cards? I once heard someone say that after she got involved with art stamping, she calculated that the first card she ever made cost about $300.00. Think about it. You take a few instructional classes, buy a few rubber stamps, card stock, scrapbook papers, some how-to books, stamping ink, colored pencils, markers, special glues and a bunch of other stuff. You sit down to make that first card, which probably didn't come out all that great. What did it really cost after you bought all the materials? Certainly more than any card you could buy in Hallmark. Then, after spending an hour painstakingly planning a layout for something great, you create that first card for someone you know, and then you worry that the recipient will look at it and think: "My, oh my...is she so broke that she couldn't afford to buy a card and had to make one instead?"

Along comes a time when you start to spread your wings and dip into the beautiful world of mixed media. So now you start buying (if you're anything like me) tattered lace, old buttons, vintage photos, broken door knobs, tarnished drawer pulls, vintage ledger papers and so on. Away goes the desire to make greeting cards because the time that you have to spend on art is minimal and why waste it making cards that people might not like when you can create something that is so much more "sophisticated". Besides, you can always go to the dollar store and BUY a halfway decent card for a buck. Hmmm...

Well recently I decided that I am going to start making some cards and giving them to people again. Whenever I have a bunch of papers, laces, ribbons, glue, old photo copies, etc., left over from other projects on my table, I will make up a few generic card-fronts that will fit onto a folded piece of letter-sized card stock. Then, all I will have to do is put something on the inside for any given occasion. After all, you've already got a bunch of things all matched up from the REAL project that you just finished, so half the work is done.

I actually began this process last week by making a Valentine's Day card for Mr. Perch (a/k/a Hubby), and birthday cards for my daughter-in-law and brother-in-law. I think my daughter-in-law liked hers, but imagine my amazement when not only did my brother-in-law like his, but actually hung it on his kitchen cabinet! I guess most people do appreciate that you took the time to make something special for them, even if it is a small kind of special.

Following are two I made this morning.

This is one that I think I will give to my friend

for her birthday this week...

This is the inside of the card. I enjoyed dusting off

those postal rubber stamps!...

This is the one for my dad's birthday (90th).

He has a wonderful sense of humor about aging,

often saying: "If I knew that I was going to live this long,

I would have taken better care of myself."

And this is the inside...

Here are scans of the old photos that I used...



Go ahead. Have some fun, and make someone happy!