Creating Greeting Cards

After going for a month or two without doing anything crafty, I found that my enjoyment of life was a bit diminished.  It seems that creating things is just a part of my nature that cannot be denied.  There is just something about watching an item take shape and color and become something of use.

My latest passion, (and I've had many), is working with paper.  I never thought of paper as a craft medium that would capture my attention.  That's something I did in grade school.  It didn't seem like something for a mature adult to play with.

Well, maybe I'm not a mature adult after all, or perhaps I was just wrong about paper.  Several family members have given me gifts of scrapbooking supplies along with ,of course, some scrapbooks.  I dabbled with them a bit and then laid them aside.  At one point, while in a cleaning, decluttering frenzy, I gave all my scrapbooking supplies away. 

Having come across a tote of family pictures about a year ago, I decided to take up scraping again and try to put the best of the pics in a pleasant, interesting format.  Not long after, my daughter sent me a lovely handmade card which caused me to start taking notice of other cards I received.  I noticed that the handmade ones were so special.  They were more personal and unique.  An item to be treasured as a special greeting from someone who goes the extra mile to choose or to make the card themselves.

It seemed to me that making a card would be sort of like creating a mini scrapbook page, only without the pictures, and with a personal sentiment added.  So I began making cards for special occasions for my family and friends. 

I am particularly fond of the iris folding techniques and love to come up with my own unique templates as well as use patterns I've seen on the internet.  Iris folding is a rather time consuming technique, but the effect is an image with dimension and resembling the iris of a camera.  Just changing the patterns of paper or the colors can change the whole look from one card to the next.

Die cut shapes and stamp and ink lend themselves well to unlimited designs.  I never know just how a card will turn out from beginning to end.  I just kind of wing it usually with no specific pattern in mind.  A piece of paper here, a ribbon there and voila!  a card has been born.  It's fun.

So now I have an ever growing stash of greeting cards and I need to do something with them.  Hence my online shops at Etsy and Artfire.  My user name in both of those shops is  RenysDesigns.  So stop in and have a look.  Maybe you'll see something you like, or think of a custom card you would like to have created.  My prices are very reasonable since I'm really just looking to support my habit.  And tell your friends.  I would appreciate it.

Reny