Have a little fun with paper

If you've been to the craft stores in the past couple of years, the aisles that seem to have increased the most relate to paper crafts -- like stamping, scrapbooking, and the like.  There's a reason for that.  It's fun and it's not hard to be successful.

The picture today is my Mother's Day card from my daughter-in-law, Joanne.  She has been doing scrapbooking and paper crafting for many years now, and she has a lot of the tricks and tools of the trade.  She is also a Stampin' Up representative, a company that is celebrating 25 years in business. 

When I was a little kid, if I would have had access to the punches, papers, do-dads, and inks, I would have gone crazy.  A good day for me and my friends was some canning wax and the Sunday funnies in color.  We would coat a piece of paper with the canning wax and then lay one of the comics on top, then use the edge of a glass to rub over the top until the color seeped into the wax.  Ouila!  A perfect reverse impression of the Sunday funnies. 

Cards are quite expensive these days -- even a simple one -- and what I've noticed is that they just don't often convey the sentiment that I am looking for.  So I end up with something but it's something that doesn't really do the trick.  Making a card does not take that long and it is fun.  You can personalize the card in many ways, with stamps, add-ons, dimensionals, pearls, and with your own words inside. 

Really getting into the craft, you can buy a non-electric machine that die cuts paper and also does embossing.  It is remarkable.  Crafters share their die cuts to avoid having to buy all of them, since they are fairly expensive.  And there's another good side of that.  Crafters get to know other crafters, and friendships form. 

If you like the card I got on Mother's Day and would like to find out more about Stampin' Up products, feel free to email me at knelsen@uakron.edu and I'll put you in touch with Joanne.  She can do a party for you where you and your guests make several lovely cards during the two-hour time frame.  And if you have children or grandchildren, nothing would occupy their time like some stamps, ink, paper, and the like so you can stock up on that kind of thing.  The Christmas ideas are really enjoyable too.

Some are even using paper crafting to create their own wedding, anniversary, milestone birthday, or graduation invitations.  Getting a group of people together to make the invitations is just part of the joy of such an event, and in itself is a memory maker.

Receiving a handmade card is really something special, because you know that the person who gave it to you spent time thinking of how to best capture the occasion.  It's personal and meaningful. 

Among the charisms that we might possibly have is craftiness.  It's a gift from God for us to explore and develop over our lifetimes. 

Have a wonderful day!!  Should be pretty hot.