Cards From Cards

When I am at estate sales, i find I am always looking through the boxes and baskets that other people tend to pass over. You just never know what little treasures you will come across! At one of the sales I went to last autumn, I found several boxes...I mean shoeboxes...of unsent, collected greeting cards that the Person Whose Sale This Was, had accumulated over several decades. I was so overwhelmed by the quantity and quality of the cards that I just "picked one" of the many to choose from, and bought it for $10. (If you have purchased a greeting card of late, you know what a deal this was!)

I took this big shoebox of cards to mom's house, and we spent a couple of hours going through the cards, dividing them up. There were cards from far-away places-- some as far away as Europe, New York, and Alaska-- Hallmark cards, cards from art galleries all over the world, cards from museums, religious cards, birthday cards, and nature cards. We both ended up with enough cards to last us well into the next decade.

In addition to the cards Mama decided she would not use, I kept the post cards, and a few of the cards that were lovely, but had obviously be sent to this lady and were precious enough to her to keep.

The next day, I got out my cardstock and cut the 8-1/2" x 11" paper in half and then folded it in half again. This gave me perfect cards that I then could make into lovely notecards by gluing the post cards to the front. I trimmed the used, and yet very pretty and unique cards to the proper size and glued them to the folded cardstock as well. At the end of my crafting, I have my own shoe box full of now useful and pretty note cards to send to people I love.

At least at my house, Snail Mail is not yet dead!