The second I dropped my cards into the drive-through at the post office, I thought of a few more people I wanted to send cards to. There were no more on the desk. Instant card shortage! I’m probably not alone, so I made a few cards that don’t take long and don’t require illustrator or designer skills.
All of them used only the papers and materials I had on my desktop. OK, my desktop is cluttered, but no buying more material. Here are the five cards you can make quickly and get points for sending handmade cards.
“Solstice” A large 5″ x 7″ card starts with a piece of Strathmore Ready-Cut, my salvation because I can’t cut straight. I painted the bottom corner, let it dry, then covered the rest of the card with marbled paper. I cut three triangles out of paper I’d inked for some project, choosing greens and blues. One card made. Inside it says, “May the returning light brighten your year.”
“Reflection” The second large card starts with a base of suminagashi paper I made a few weeks ago for the Niji Design Team blog. It’s the middle one on this blog post, you can see the gold far more clearly. I cut my signature wavy lines in increasing lengths and created the reflection of pine trees on the paper. Inside it says, “Reflect on 2013 in peace and joy, and may 2014 bring you dreams to live.”
” Three Gifts” Using a gift-tag punch, I created three gift tags, then turned them into presents with a pen. The place where you punch a hole and run a thread becomes the ribbon, and two more lines create a package. I used a monoprint cut down to size for a background. On the inside I wrote,”Peace, health and joy for 2014.”
“Bird in Winter 1” Using a book with Chinese writing, I cut across the writing to give the pieces the look of birch trees. A tiny triangle of red paper makes the bird. I used Arches Cover in black for the card, it’s sturdy enough to make into a card. Inside, I wrote, “May you find surprises that delight you in 2014.”
“Bird in Winter 2” Not sure if it was easy for everyone to create a tree from slivers of paper, I did away with the branches and created a forest of abstract trunks. This one is my least favorite, as it looks like one of our dreaded forest fires has moved through. I included it because I wanted to show what happens when you simplify too much. Later I went back and added tree branches in white pen. It was better, but it won’t get sent.
I’m looking forward to this week; it’s a quiet work week, and the weather is warming up enough to eat on the patio.
—-Quinn McDonald is using monoprints that didn’t work out to wrap last-minute presents.
QuinnCreative 