Gift #1149: January Cards

One of the blessings of winter is that it is perfect for “nesting in” and staying at home because there’s not a lot to do outside when it’s bitter cold.   Days spent at home are never boring for me because I have a host of crafting opportunities.  In fact, it’s often hard to decide what to do and not flit from idea to idea.

This morning I decided on making some cards.  One of the goals I had set for myself this year was to spend time each month using my crafting and hobbies to be a blessing to other people – and handmade cards are a perfect way to do this.  I used to contribute to “Cards for a Cause”, which is a group on an online stamping community that makes cards to send to a different organization each month.   This year I’m going to make a concerted effort to participate again.  In addition, I have a huge tub of cards that I’ve made in past years that I’m going to draw from as well.

This month’s organization is an assisted living and memory care home in North Carolina.  The residents like to send cards to each other for birthdays and “thinking of you” cards.  One of their group activities with residents is they will gather together in the activities room and write notes on cards to give to each other.  I found this incredibly touching and also a deeply personal cause to donate cards.  My grandmother had spent the last year in memory care too as her Alzheimer’s had advanced to needed special care.  This felt like a wonderful way to honor her memory as well as touch the lives of others in similar situations.

I wanted to make a suite of cards that coordinate and that would work equally well for men or women recipients.  I also made these cards in my grandmother’s favorite colors – I inherited my love of greens and browns from her. This stamp set is one I frequently use as I love the peaceful, sweet look of the nature images.

When I make cards it is very helpful for me to at least have a starting spot that is designated so that it’s easier to make decisions about color scheme and images.  Most often, I work from pre-designed layouts which I find online or in books and then I can easily make several cards with the same format.  For many years I used Mojo Monday’s layouts – this was a blog that released a new layout each week and you could make cards and post them to the site.  Much to my disappointment the author of the blog discontinued this a while back as it got to be too much with her schedule and life demands.  But happily the challenge is resurrected and new layouts are released every two weeks.  This layout is the current design and it was fun to match papers and images for each card.

I hope you enjoyed getting a peak at these before they go to the post office on Monday.  And I hope your weekend is filled with beauty, warmth, and creativity.

Blessings to you,

Sarah