Day 1 -- Handmade Card

Today was a friend's birthday. She didn't want gifts (who makes/takes that request seriously). What I think she meant was "no cheap gifts". Duh. At this point in our lives, we've all received our share of miscellaneous candles, bath soaps, vases to clutter up our closets for the rest of our lives.

Wow. Harsh. See how mean I can be? Why can't I just accept a gift in the spirit it was given? Be it a $3 candle or a $300 necklace (haven't received many of those BTW!) Certainly that's the way I'd want the recipient of my miscellaneous crappy gift to accept it (and believe me, I've given quite a few crappy gifts myself!)

I love crafting. Give me a glue gun and a tube of glitter and it's better than Christmas morning. I've loved to make gifts since I was a little girl hand sewing felt ornaments for the Christmas craft boutique at my school. I wasn't the most original designer, nor were my cutting and gluing too precise (I mean, they LOOKED handmade, by a 8 year old), but I loved doing it. And I think that love came through.

So out came my hot glue gun, ribbon scraps, pieces of patterned paper and press-on lettering. It took about 30 minutes to complete my creation and it turned out really nice. (The main feature of the card was a little 3-D embellishment of a birthday cake, the candles actually lit up when you pressed a small button (love technology!)) My friend actually loves handmade cards too, so I knew I was doing something NICE, suited for a particular person.

I gave it to her today. At a lunch party for 8. It was passed around and admired and when it came back to her she said "these are the kinds of gifts that mean the most to me. Ones that a person has spent time and thought in making." It felt as if I had gave her something shiny from Tiffany's! Of course, doing something NICE made me feel pretty dang good too. I know that's not why I am doing this....or is it? Hmm, got to think about that...