I used to roam greeting card stores and think “I could do that”. I love the messages, sweet poems and clever puns on them. I think it might be where my love of design and typography came from. I would spend tons of money on a bunch of cards that just caught my eye… and I often didn’t even have a recipient in mind. I’d just keep them to pull from when an occassion came up or if I needed to send a thank you or something. But started playing with making my own cards and bought a bunch of blank ones at Michael’s on clearance ages ago. They have lasted me a long time. Recently O started to show interest in coloring. And of course feed her interest with coloring books, crayons, an easel and such. I think I can handle having a little artist on my hands. When we were invited to a birthday party I realized O could make the card!

I just used my blank cards and a silver marker to write “Happy Birthday”. I knew crayon wouldn’t conceal the silver marker but I think black or another color could work as well.

I gave O some crayons and let her loose on the card. Coloring is a really good exercise for when she is patching. While patching, it is best if she focusses and follows things that are close to her (since she is farsighted). Anyway, she obviously loved coloring. She hasn’t yet chosen a dominate hand to use. Can you tell? Her current style is just hashing the paper over and over with the crayon. She hasn’t become interested in making shapes or anything but she loves all the colors. And I think orange might be the favorite. And no, I’m never letting her paint her room orange like my mom let me because I had to paint over it and it was torture.

This kept her busy for about 20 minutes which impressed me. She was having so much fun that it I let her do a Thanksgiving card for my Grandma. I traced her hand and made a little turkey and then she colored all over… I wish I had gotten a picture of it.

When she was finished we had a homemade birthday card for her friend Riley who was turning 6 that weekend. She too is a little artist and I had a blast shopping for her gift with O. We got her practically one of everything from the Crayola section at Target…..everything I would have wanted as a 6 year old artist. Riley squealed when she opened the pad of art paper. Her mom chuckled at how much joy she got from paper… but I remember being thrilled to use real art paper rather than the stuff I stole out of my dad’s giant laser printer at his office. Riley and I are a lot alike.

So there you have it. A simple homemade card with a little more meaning. It doesn’t hurt that it entertained my toddler for so long AND it was during patch time.