Naomi, the saver of all things old, had a box of very old Christmas cards that her grandmother had saved. (Yes the practice of saving things runs in her family). Those might be worth something someday – Right? Actually – Wrong. On eBay similar old cards were listed for about $10/dozen, and nobody was bidding on them. So, what does one do with all these very lovely and very old cards?
She came up with the idea of remaking them into Christmas cards for this year, and I must say that I am impressed. She went to the local art store and bought a package of different colors of light weight cardstock, and set to work. She appropriated the dining room table for the project.
First she selects a card and trims it to a size that will fit into an available envelope. (We also have an assortment of various sizes of envelopes collected from half used boxes of stationary, garage sales and who knows where else).
She has a good quality paper cutter and an exacto knife that she uses for precise trimming. I know there are other kinds of special sissors that people use, but these are the tools that we have on hand. The trimming also involves removing the signatures of the previous sender and any personal messages. Then she selects a card stock to match, and artfully glues the old pictures to the new paper. Usually she cuts the card stock so that it is slightly wider and a little more than twice as long as the picture. Then she folds the cardstock neatly in half and glues the old picture on the front of the card.
She sometimes trims up the old text from the inside of the old card and puts it in the new one. Sometimes she matches the text with a different card. Sometimes she just writes her own little sentiment inside the card. She uses a white pencil to write on the darker card stock.
Part of the fun is reading the old cards, with the sweet personal notes inside. These came from the era when written communication was very common and you can tell that often the senders of these cards put time and effort into selecting just the right card with just the right message. It puts us in the mood to try to do the same thing. So if you receive one of these hand made cards from us, know that it was made especially with you in mind.
Merry Christmas
Earthly Goods 