Card Making

Hello! This post has been on my to-do list for months now. I'm not really a New Year's Resolutions type of person, but I did make up a fun goal for this past year and I'm ready to say - I did it! You know if I make myself a goal, I am going to achieve it at literally all cost (I know, my personality has it's charms😜).

Anyhow... my goal was to write one letter a week for the entire year and writing response letters wouldn't count. Although there were times it was a struggle to get a letter in the mailbox and there were definitely times I had to send 3 letters a week to make up for missed weeks, I got 'er done! I have always loved writing letters, so this was overall a really enjoyable use of time for me. I found it extremely relaxing to create my own cards too (after looking at the current cost of stationary - WHAT?! I used to get packs of 10+ stationary sets for a buck at the dollar store. Not sure what happened there...) and my older girls were encouraged to write to pen-pals of their own! I reconnected with some old friends, got to know others on a deeper level, wrote to people going through really tough times (cancer, death of loved ones....), and realized how much I crave those intentional relationships in life. I'm not sure if it's ever on those tests, but letters are definitely one of my "love languages" haha!

I wrote somewhere over 100 letters and wanted to save pictures of some of my cards over that time. For one thing, it shows me what I learned and where I can improve and for another it reminds me of ideas I liked. I started out doing a lot of colored pencil drawings.

Of course, I added either jokes or Bible verses to most of them, because that's what I do.

Some required a little more time than others (nothing took too long though since I rather prefer quick projects and I am in general a rather fast person😂)

I played around with the kids, making various little paint and paper cards alongside them.

I had way too much fun trying out the kids' spirograph I found at a garage sale. I had no idea what I was doing with it, but it made cool designs. haha

Markers turned out to be a hard NO for me. I was just using normal Crayola markers, but they are tough to work with. Everything just looks messier than you want. I sent these to people who weren't going to judge my arts and crafts skills.😂 Thanks for loving me anyways.

A card I made looking at Sandra Boynton's Barnyard Dance for Dad's 60th birthday.😂

A couple more little paint attempts I made.

At one point, I discovered the fun of pens!

I kept seeing these fun watercolor cards on Pinterest. Now, I have never used watercolor before and had no clue where to even begin, but I decided to get a cheap pack at Wal-mart and see what I could figure out. I've been learning as I go and hopefully improving😂, but either way, I have had so much fun along the way!! I learned that my pens would leak if I added them beforehand and wouldn't write well if I waited until after I painted.

On our anniversary in June, Cabz and I both made each other a card. I made the little watercolor one and I was so surprised when Cabz made the other one for me!! He does usually make me a card, but it was quite nifty! It seems very mathematical like him too somehow. haha I love it so much.💕

A few more different watercolors I did:

This sort of outer space vibe was one of my favorites. I used watercolor for the background and then splattered some white acrylic on top once it had dried.

These were probably my favorite cards I made. They were a little more tedious to make, but I love how they turned out!

Next up, some fall themed cards! This first one I did as a craft with the kids. We gathered a variety of leaves outside, traced them on our cards, and then drew lines to form the leaf shapes.