Homemade Greetings Cards

Imagine this: You hear the postie squeak your garden gate, the letterbox flap taps the door and something thuds onto your hallway door mat.

You're not expecting anything, will it be a letter containing bills? Another local takeaway leaflet or maybe something else... You peep around the banister on the landing and see that it's a brightly coloured envelope with something scrawled on the front under the stamp. How exciting! Who could this be from?!

You open the envelope and it's a hand drawn card from your mate with a lovely message in it, you smile, feel warm and cosy then pop it on your mantlepiece where you admire it for the rest of the week. That little piece of magic has cheered you right up. You even start to think about what you'd send back to them and start laughing at some silly ideas you have.

In today's digital world what a great use of time to slow down and take an hour or so on a rainy afternoon to create something special for a friend. The cosy act of lighting a candle, pouring your favourite brew and getting stuck into a creative project. A little bit of collage or painting, maybe even opening those colouring pencils you've been 'saving for a special occasion.'

It's a real connection to send something physical to a loved one, it's no more time and energy than inviting them over for a brew and it's so rewarding.

The beauty of a greetings card is that it can be as cheap or expensive as you'd like it to be. Collage some mixed medias and found papers, go out and buy all of your favourite gouache paints, suit your own budget. Take as much or as little time as you want creating it, settle into a watercolour painting of your favourite park or Sharpie a great big word onto the front.

Think of the person who will receive this masterpiece and think of the motifs that bind you together, an in-joke about snails or an embarrassing story involving a seagull... the possibilities!

I like to use people's birthdays and special occasions to make cards, the deadline of a set date gives me something to aim for and I make the card around their favourite colours or animals with my own twist on it. I usually start off with a blank card and pencil a design onto it to later work into with gouache paint or coloured pencil. I can spend anything from an hour to all evening working on something. It never feels like a chore, I love it so much!

If you're looking to get blank cards envelopes and stamps but don't want to commit to buying lots, see if a friend will go halves with you or invest in a pack of good quality paper and learn some paper folding techniques.

Some extra inspiration for you:

• A Pinterest collection of ideas

• My very old video on how to make an envelope from a sheet of A4 paper

• More things you can send in the post!

  Postcards

  Zines!