Guest Author - Meschill Billington
In our present world of email, twitter, social networking sites, cell phones and instant messaging, the role of greeting cards and letters risk extinction. Internet sites are available that enable you to create an electronic greeting card for any occasion. Letters, which take a few days in the mail, have been replaced with email or text messages that provide prompt delivery. Some would agree that with the switch to the instant communication technology, we have lost some of the intimacy that a card or letter can convey. Although it may brighten your day to receive an electronic card, nothing can replace the joy of opening you mail box to an unexpected card that you can touch and enjoy and save. Knowing that a friend or relative took the time to mail a card can mean a great deal to the recipient, especially in this electronic age where the English language has been adapted to speedy writing with acronyms and slack grammar. Yes, greeting cards still have a place in society and hopefully always will. This is good news to the paper crafter because what is even more meaningful is to receive a handmade card created just for the recipient and card makers can use any one of the broad range of paper crafts to make a card that anyone would be happy to receive.
The greeting card is one of the channels through which paper crafters use to display their art and at the same time offer cheer to a friend or relative. This is one of the reasons paper crafters enjoy what they do because it can be used to show others that they care. A simple card can mean so much to a friend for not only a birthday, Christmas or anniversary but also when they are going through a difficult time. A sympathy card with a few written lines can say what words alone cannot. The thank you card is another courtesy that is often overlooked in today’s busy world but whether it is acknowledging a gift or expressing gratitude for a kind deed, it can mean so much more than a quick email or wall post on Facebook.
Although paper crafting can be created simply for the beauty or as an expression of the artist, it is also a craft that can be used as a ministry to those around you through greeting cards. All forms of paper crafts can be used to create beautiful and unique greeting cards including Quilling, Origami, Vintage Paper Crafts, Papermaking, Paper Piercing, Tissue Crafts, Punch Art, Torn Paper Art, Rubberstamping, Paper Cutting, Collage and Paper Dolls just to name a few. The greeting card is a tiny blank canvas ready to be adorned in endless ways and enjoyed by the creator through the process and the receiver through the end result. Cards can be very extravagant or very simple and can be created by advanced paper artists to beginning paper crafters as well as children.
Creating greeting cards can be a family activity at Christmas or Valentines that can bring the family together and begin a new tradition. Children can begin to develop a caring as well as creative spirit at an early age and can experience the joy of giving as well as the satisfaction of creating something and sharing it with a friend or family member.
Now more than ever before, it is important to preserve the practice of sending greeting cards as an expression of sentiment. Although, today’s electronic world offers instant means of communications as well as paperless greetings, the paper greeting card is still a much appreciated act of kindness. By creating handmade greeting cards you can experience creativity as well as present friends and family with a card that was created with them in mind. Cardmakers have endless avenues to use when creating cards with the wide variety of paper crafts and can find enjoyment, satisfaction and a creative outlet by using a favorite method and trying new ones.
