What do you do with the handmade cards that you receive?

We all jokingly say that no one better ever throw away one of our cards that we so carefully make and then send off.  But after awhile, those heartfelt creations start to pile up.  Well, I have a system and I thought I’d share it with you.  And I’d love to hear your comments on what you do with yours.

I have two ribbon boards in my studio.  I put all the cards for one event on one of these boards.  For me, I mainly get cards for my birthday, at Christmas and then for Valentine’s Day.  So right now, one of my boards is filled with birthday cars:

And then the other board holds my Christmas cards:

To make room for the Christmas cards, I took down last year’s Valentine cards and tied them up with a ribbon:

These I will save for a year.  After a year, I go through and choose one or two favorites which go in a wooden box.  Some may have a technique that I want to copy and they go in a special binder.  The rest get repurposed*, if they can be. Those that can’t be are thrown away making room for the new favorites. (It’s kind of like going through your closet and getting rid of the clothes that no longer fit, are worn out, out of style or you just don’t like the way they look.)  Now you have room for the new!

Let me know what you do with yours!

Marjorie

*repurposed: remove the card front and attach it to another card base making a new card which you can send to any number of organizations that collect cards – for families of the sick, for the military, etc.   At Creating Lasting Memories we have a monthly “Stamp Your Heart Out” class where we make cards for the military.  We often repurpose cards.

Hello bloggers!

It’s a New Year and as I shared with you, I have started a 365 (actually 366 this year) project. I thought I’d share my photos from the first week:

On January 1 we were graced with this awesome sunset.  I know a lot of you saw this because there were a bunch of people down at Sporthaven walking on the beach, or just sitting in their cars. And more than a few were taking pictures.  I plan to regularly take pictures of sunsets.

January 2 we finally had some rain.  I snapped this picture of the raindrops on my car as I looked out my garage door up my street.

January 3 is a photo of my dog, Snickers, in one of her favorite places to lie down these days – behind the dining room table.  She is getting deaf in her old age and I think she feels safer there. Gotta love that one ear up and the other down look.

January 4 I had some fun playing with my iPhone camera. This photo was snapped in the dark outside Fred Meyer in my car.  See, you really can take pictures anywhere anytime. Who knows what you’ll come up with.  I think it is a good idea to take a picture of yourself from time to time.

January 5 we had a wild winter ocean going on outside my window.  I took quite a few pictures of the waves crashing over the rocks.  I plan to take regular photos of the ocean too. Just because I love it and feel so fortunate to live here.  Before I moved here, I never realized how much the ocean changes day to day.

January 6 is a photo of my new exercise shoes that I bought that day.  It’s actually a photo for a new class I signed up for at Big Pictures called Move More, Eat Well.  The bracelet on top says “I Think. I Live. I Am. PINK.” Great new fitness and nutrition program I started.  You can find out more about that here.

January 7 I got home exhausted and tired from work. Something to do with an in-store birthday party making scrapbooks with 7 girls (age 10 and under). I was getting ready for bed and all of a sudden remembered my photo. I grabbed my camera and had fun working with very low light.  I really wanted to capture the sparkle on these Christmas flowers that are still out.  Found I have an ISO 3200 setting on my snap and shoot.   See what I mean about learning more about your camera with this project?

My daughter sent me a link to this site where someone has made a list of things to take a photo of every day, should you need some inspiration.  I’ll take all the help I can get.

If you don’t read Allie Edwards’ newsletter (you can subscribe at her blog), she had a great post on Creative Practice.  That is what this project is all about.  If you are interested in reading what she had to say, send me your email and I will forward it to you.  Meanwhile, I hope you are busy creating new memories for 2012.

Marjorie