Holiday Giving: Handmade Cards

In the midst of the holiday season, as students we have to juggle between exams, papers, time for family, friends and ourselves. Nevertheless, I still find myself happier in December because of all the decorations, music, and the feeling that school is almost over.

2016 December – I just started out and thought it looked amazing.

I have always loved making cards for birthdays and 2 years ago, I became fascinated with the art of hand lettering. After spending hours watching videos on how to do fauxlligraphy, I decided to make some cards of my own.

It took a while to get a design I liked, but I was pretty proud of the finished product! To go along with the cards, I baked meringues and even made my own envelopes!

Last year, I continued making cards but with different designs and because I had recently bought a brush pen, I attempted to write the whole card with it. This time, I baked chocolate chip and sugar cookies, tied together with ribbon.

2017 December – Practice and the right tools definitely improved my hand lettering.

Making these cards allowed me to switch from memorizing theories and equations to tapping into my artistic side. I thoroughly enjoyed coming up with the cover and testing different styles.

If you don’t like the limited choices from stores when shopping for cards, I suggest making your own!

How to Make the Best Cards

Meringues and handmade envelopes for each of my friends!

• Add unique doodles or switch up the design a little to suit each person, making each card unique.
• Mix up the different fonts – decorate with shadows, stripes, dots, block letters, bubble letters.
• Incorporate as many related items as you can! For my holiday cards, I drew snowflakes, Christmas trees, mistletoe, ornaments. You certainly don’t have to be an artist, there are many videos and pictures online that you can look at for reference.

You can make cards for any occasion and you don’t need an event or celebration to want to give a card to someone!

Want to make cards but don’t have a reason to? Here are some ideas!

• Gratitude – Thank your professors, residence leaders, club organizers, or anyone you want to express gratitude to.
• New Year’s – It’s a great way to recap and remember how the year turned out.
• Birthdays – Even if you don’t have time to go out and buy presents, or you can’t think of any good present ideas, give them a well thought out card!
• Congratulatory – Did your friend do well on the midterm they studied extremely hard for? Congratulate them! Tell them how proud you are!

After giving them out, I hope you will feel a sense of joy from giving to others and be extremely proud of the work you’ve created.