The Card Materials

A couple of years ago, I started making my own cards.  An 11-yr-old had given me a Christmas card that she'd made herself and I thought, I can do that.  Of course I then had a slightly card-obsessed phase...  Then I started looking at items that could be worked into cards.  All that lovely paper is lovely, but expensive and environmentally suspect.  So I have a collection of things that could be used in cards.  It's a bit like having an attic of shoe boxes filled with things like buttons, string, and nails.  (The shoe boxes in my attic have things like Christmas decorations).  On Friday was a friend's birthday, and I actually used one of these leftover bits for her card.

This friend is a home economics teacher but can also (and does, depending on the year) teach Japanese.  Her home has lovely Japanese items around and, when looking for inspiration, I thought this bit of cardboard with its Japanese-style print would be just right.  It's actually from the box of a mug I was given for Christmas (the mug is just as pretty as the box).

It was easy enough to cut a square out of a box, but it was just that little bit too big for the card.  I kept trimming and trimming, then eventually realised that I could take the top sheet off the corrugated part and it would sit so much better.  I was hoping for a bit more dark blue in the background of the card, or even some gold, but it looks like I'm all out.  I think the light pink works nicely though.