One for the Mailbox

I like getting mail. I also like giving mail. I like everything about it. Including the stamp. My grandfather was a stamp collector. Maybe that’s part of it.

When I was a kid we had a house with the mailbox right next to the front door. The same mailman came everyday at the same time. You could set your watch by our mailman. And he was on foot. Remarkable man.

My family is big on Thank You Cards. We send them to each other all the time. I should only speak for myself, but I’m sure we mail thank you cards to other people too.

I make my own cards whenever possible. I’m raising my kids to do the same. It is a draw between which I like more; making the card or writing in it. (pun intended)

Sending cards in the mail may currently be a lost art, but it seems all things eventually come back. After the invention of washing machines who ever expected to see aprons again? And I certainly could not have predicted the extreme resurgence of vinyl.

As many of you know, I like post cards too. But this post isn’t about post cards. It’s about cards you make yourself and send to your loved ones from the humble setting of your home.

In the event that you are reading this nonsense and thinking it’s high time you sent out some homemade greetings of your own, I have compiled some simple suggestions for making cards to get you started.

Check this out.

I like to start with a pack of blank stationary. Then I find random images to glue on the front of the cards. The weirder the better. You can cut up old magazines, or soak labels off of your beer bottles and glue them onto your cards. I also enjoy cutting up the recent sales circular and glueing its clippings together on cards. Another savvy idea is to save cards that people send you. You can cut and recomposition them. It’s up-cycling, not re-gifting.

In the event that you aren’t feeling as ambitious as the above ideas would require, you can always buy greeting cards with images to be colored in. This is a nice idea, as you can get your zen-calm-stress free-coloring on. And make something of it.

See you at the post office.