Perfectly Imperfect--Handmade Cards

I had something a little bit bizarre happen to me a couple of weeks ago. I sent someone a card from my stash. It happened to be handmade, but not by me. In fact, it wasn't quite my style, but I couldn't bring myself to toss it because it had a certain "cute" appeal. But as often happens, I was down to the wire and a card needed to go out, so presto! The not-so-elegant-but-clearly-handmade card was signed, sealed and delivered with a heartfelt message inside.

A few days went by. I opened my email and found a message from the recipient of my "not-quite-perfect" card.

Wow.

She raved on and on about "how did you find the time to send me a handmade card"? Hey, I didn't want to spoil it for her, so I didn't say, "Uh, I didn't make it."

Instead, I started thinking. I thought about why that card mattered to her. Clearly, she didn't care that it wasn't perfect. She cared that I had put some time and thought into creating a one-of-a-kind artifact just for her.

I remembered a time when a public relations agency I worked with sent me a cute hand-drawn note congratulating me on my pregnancy. Yes, that was nearly 21 years old, so the gesture stuck with me. In fact, I could almost tell you about every handmade card I've ever received. They are very, very difficult for me to toss away. Even if I don't like the artwork, there's such a personality to each of them, so much love in all of them, that I find myself wanting to hang on to them.

So today I was in a bit of a rush. We're having one of those family weekends where nothing is going quite right. And I needed a card to send my aunt, whose birthday is St. Patrick's Day. I could rush to the store and buy one. But in the same amount of time, I dug into my stash and created the one-of-a-kind card above, telling her how lucky we are that she's part of our family.

It ain't perfect. Or...maybe it is!

PS To all our friends in the UK, Happy Mothering Day!

PPS I just put "A Crop to Die For," the dinner mystery play featuring Kiki Lowenstein up at www.YouPublish.com/joannaslan If you are looking for a fun special event, this is it!

You Can Get LUCKY...Really LUCKY!

I think I live a charmed life. Really I do. And now my good fortune can rub off on you. (Uh, that rhymed, didn’t it?)

You—or a friend— can enter our Box O’Books Contest with a value of more than $150 (yes, I added another book over the weekend)—but there’s more. The lovely folks at Mrs. Grossman’s Stickers have offered another prize: A selection of their stickers with a $50 Retail Value. So now we have two contests with two super prizes, and all you have to do is sign in to this blog before March 17, 2008 which is St. Patrick’s Day. On March 18, 2008, we’ll draw choose two email addresses from the folks signed in, and notify you whether you’ve won the Box O’Books or the Mrs. Grossman’s Stickers. You’ll have 48 hours to respond, and then we’ll move on to another person signed in.

So tell all your friends! They can sign up, too, and maybe they’ll share.

Meanwhile, what can you do with stickers? Glad you asked…

1. Decorate a card like the one here. If you go to http://www.mrsgrossmans.com/stickerideas/ you’ll see the card, and instructions, as well as a link to templates you can use to make your own version of the card.

2. Decorate kids’ lunch bags or any plain gift bag. You can buy solid colored gift bags at WalMart or dollar stores and jazz them up with stickers.

3. Decorate a thin strip of cardstock--say 2" x 6" or 2" x 7"-- punch a hole in one end and thread ribbon through that, and use it as a bookmark.

I’ll share other ideas next week. Meanwhile, tell your friends about the contest. I truly believe that sharing makes all of us more lucky!

How to Start Scrapbooking Part III and a CONTEST!

Okay, now you have the background for a scrapbooking page. (See my post last Monday for instructions.) You’ll want to add photos and embellishments. Except in rare situations, the photo is more important than embellishments, so you’ll add photos to your layouts first, and then fill in with embellishments.

You have two choices about how to add a photo—you can mat it, which means you border the photo with paper to make it stand out, or you can put it on the page as is.

(Note: Usually when something is matted, paper underNEATH it protrudes out to form a border. But you can also mat something by simply creating a border around the item. This is only important because if you go to a framing shop and they suggest a “mat” for your piece of art, they won’t mean something protruding from underneath.)

Either way you decide to display a photo is fine—matted or unmatted. Sometimes, for the sake of design or space or impact you’ll choose one way over the other. Typically, if you need the photo to stand out, you’ll mat it. For example, if the photo is small or if there are a lot of photos and you want one to be special, you’ll mat the picture. You might also mat the photo to bring out colors in the picture. Or you might mat the photo to make it more prominent because it might by itself be too small on the page. Finally, you might mat the photo because the patterned paper you’ve used would overwhelm the photo.

Two Pages--Two Ways to Add Photos

One shows a large photo on the 1/3 and 2/3s proportioned page. As you can see, there’s no need to mat this, and a mat would probably cause the photo to take up too much room as it’s already big.

The second page shows a lot of small photos on the same proportioned background. To distinguish my mother’s baby photos from mine, I matted hers.

How to Mat Photos

Now, there’s a hard way and an easy way to mat photos. The hard way is to adhere your photo to a piece of paper and try to trim all the sides so they are even. You’ll probably keep chopping down the sides until you need a new piece of paper for a mat!

Here’s the easy way: Put a photo split smack-dab in the center of the BACK of your photo. Stick your photo to the paper you want to use as a mat. Trim the mat paper as best you can. Now, GENTLY peel the photo off the mat and reposition the photo so that the borders are even.

(Note: To adhere a photo split, first remove the blue waxy tabbed square from the sticky split, then PRESS the split down hard where you want it to go, now peel off the ribbon backing. Do NOT try to remove the sticky split and stick it down. You’ll just get it stuck to your fingers. Trust me!)

Next week we’ll talk about embellishments…what they are and how to make them.

Big Box O' Books Contest

Announcing my Big Box O’ Books Contest, a lucky contest for the Irish and non-Irish alike. Here’s how you enter—simply sign in at our blog. That’s it, that’s all. On March 17, I’ll choose one lucky person from those emails to receive my Big Box O’Books which is a box of gently read books totaling more than $115.30 in value. (I keep adding more!) See, I had to clean out my bookshelves, and I know all of you love to read, too, so I thought this was a nifty and GREEN alternative to recyling.