Hey there! I’m here to share a quick look into a personal project I worked on during my last few weeks in Alabama. I was looking for ways to say goodbye to my dearest friends and thank them for the awesome times we’ve had together and the support they’ve showed me throughout the year. So I decided to create some custom personalized thank you/farewell cards for them. Of course, this was mostly just something nice that I wanted to do for my friends, but it also had two personal benefits: first, I got to spend time creating something fun which always makes me happy and second, it helped me reflect on the year and all the good aspects of it. As I have shared in my first FeelGoodFriday post, I was temporarily going through a tough phase and I really needed to find ways to focus on the good stuff and the things I’m grateful for.
Here are some closer looks at the cards that I’ve created:
If you’ve read my bullet journal posts, you’ll know that I like to use all kinds of found paper and scraps in my projects to keep my costs minimal and reuse stuff that would otherwise go to the trash. So for the cards that I’ve created I really only bought the cardstock that I glued all the other stuff on, maybe five sheets of scrapbook paper and some silver sticker letters. The background of the card above that says keep being awesome was actually the back side of a greeting card that I myself have received this year. I just used some colored cardstock scraps to create the banner and wrote the little slogan on it. And the picture of the tree was a page from a study abroad flyer I found on campus. I used this one for a friend who is very passionate about exploring the world and is actually going to study abroad in New Zealand next year! I’m so happy for her.
I made the two ROLL TIDE cards for friends who are very passionate about our Alabama football team, obviously 🙂 The first one is just some scrapbook paper that I handlettered the slogan on. The other one actually includes cardboard from an empty tissue box and some red tissue paper from a gift I had received earlier. The bookstore card was for my librarian friend who loves to read 🙂 I found the picture on a flyer at my favorite Tuscaloosa bookstore, Earnest and Hadley Books, and just added some scraps that I used to add a quote.
I think these blue-toned cards turned out to become some of my favorites. The upper left one and the lower right one both have a background made from scrapbook paper and several layers of gift tissue paper glued on top. I made th Eiffel Tower card for a dear friend whose dream it is to live and work in France someday.
And here’s the last batch. I was really lucky to find illustrations of an avocado and a cheese slice in a freebie magazine and knew I had to include them on a card for a friend that really shares my excitement and passion for food 😀 I was kinda worried that he would think I’m reducing our friendship to this aspect but then again, I knew that he would still love it 🙂 The J.D. Salinger quote just seemed adequate for one of my friends who’s very committed to our program of study and to other aspects of her life and I wanted to reflect that on her card. And I used the artsy Hemingway quote for my friend who’s a poet 🙂
So that’s it for the little insight into my recent crafts. Maybe it inspires you to try out card making as it really can be quite simple and cheap but still makes a big impact. Saying thank you, I feel, is both important and comforting for ourselves and for the ones we say thank you to. I’m not gonna lie, I was tearing up a few times while writing these cards because I’m so thankful to have met friends as great as them and for everything they did for me.
<3 Lena