As mentioned in my Project Life update post this week, alllll the cards I sent to Paul while he was deployed in Afghanistan for nearly seven months, finally arrived back at home. It's a terribly long story about why they took so long, but the point is the post office came through and they are here again.
I sent him about 100 cards. All different ones. Postcards from travels, 99 cent Hallmark cards, Etsy cards, expensive cards, personal stationery, the works. And man, I went on and on with my thoughts on the inside. It's hilarious to re-read them now. I hardly remember all the nonsense I babbled on about.
But cards are my thing. And they were something easy I could do often and for the most part, inexpensive in the long scheme of things. I loved the hunt for the perfect card. I loved knowing that two weeks would have passed before he opened them. I loved when he told me he liked a card enough to hang it on his bulletin board at work. That was probably the best challenge. What could I send him that he'd deem good enough for the board?
Anyway. The short story is that these 100 cards are a huge part of our love story and something I am so so grateful to have back home again. I have them all in a cardboard box (along with the birthday cards!!) and will be saving them in something nicer for years to come. But I wanted to make something special out of a few of our favorites. I played with this idea in my head for a few days and happily, it turned out amazing and better yet - was totally free!
I re-purposed a frame we've had with other artwork in it for a few years. There was a piece of thick white cardstock in the frame already and I just flipped it and taped (with a simple loop of scotch tape) the cards in a pleasing layout. I purposely choose cards that were all the same size (A2 or 4.25x5.5) so the cards would feel cohesive and then left a decent portion of mat to make them look like little pieces of artwork instead of something sixteen year old me would have stuck on the wall. The inside messages of the cards are of course the most important part, but they are preserved, inside the frame, for years down the line when we want to remember what our love looked like in 2011.
I am so happy with how it turned out. It's better than I thought it would be and is going to look totally rad leaning against the wall on Paul's new desk (which is in progress - we ordered hairpin legs yesterday!).
And because I enjoy sharing fantastic card resources, these are a few of my favorite places to purchase cards.
- Paper Source (in store only, not online)
- Urbanic and Sugar Paper in LA
- Sweet Geek / fantastically nerdy handmade cards
- Enormous Champion
- Neat Things / hilariously racy
- Tabletop Made
- Marsupial Menagerie / Harry Potter themed
- Colette Paperie
- Rifle Paper Co.
- Bella Muse
It was so wonderful to have an excuse to buy cards. I sent Paul the widest range ever. Sappy and G-rated to sexy and R-rated (what is the point of being in love without racy cards?) to completely nerdy (yes, some video game cards made the rotation).
ps : here's how I made Paul's birthday special while he was deployed.
