Creative Paperwork

At my house, thank you notes are a big deal. Well, they have been a sort of sticking point for me, anyway. Thank you's, birthday cards, etc. are almost always handmade, which involves a certain time factor. Coming up with ideas is the tricky part. It's a lot like paperwork. It can be tough to get around to doing. However, once I have an idea, I'm good to go. Then I do the same thing a few times (occasionally 20 or more times!) to streamline the process and make the most of it.

The butterfly card was recently created as a thank you for some really fabulous Christmas gifts I received. The graphic came from Karen at The Graphics Fairy. The colors on this image are beautiful and definitely pop, and paired with the black and white of a page from a book I purchased at the dollar store called, Mary Wortley Montagu - Letters, I thought it made a pretty little card.

This one was made some time ago and held onto for a while. I just finally got around to using it after Christmas as a thank you to some friends who had us over for their Christmas Eve gathering.

Recently, my daughter, Cally, shared some photos from a party she co-hosted. It was a moustache party. It looked like so much fun!

Here are some of their crafty moustache party decorations.

The pics of everyone wearing "staches" were pretty cute.

Her theme became the inspiration for a birthday card for one of my nephews last week. 

I was having trouble coming up with a man card idea and her party came to mind. Yay! I figured if it was good enough for a man party, it would also suit a "man card".


So I got out the burlap and my label maker and a brad with Daniel's initial on it and traced a moustache I found online. (PS: Can anyone tell me why I passed up a label maker for $1.50 at an indoor yard sale last weekend? Hmmm? At the time, I thought, "why would you need another label maker?" (I already have two.) Of course I should have snagged it. At the rate I use them, they run out of label stuff pretty fast and I'm pretty sure the refills alone cost more than that. It was early in the morning and didn't know what else I'd come across later. Didn't want to spend everything in the first 5 minutes. Sometimes my thrifty sensibilities are not so thrifty. That's the trouble with going on the hunt. You have to be poised to jump on items for "cheap" that you don't necessarily need at the moment, because they will come in handy later. I have a ways to go on perfecting my thrifty/spendy balance. Can you tell?)


Here the cutie "stache"has been removed and placed on a straw so as to provide an instant moustache for it's recipient. I've also seen people offer it on a card as an "emergency moustache".

There you go. Paperwork can be fun. Speaking of which, I have a birthday-a-week coming up this month. Better get on that creative paperwork!

Hmmm... what to do, though, what to do? Time to brew up some new ideas.

This could take a while...

I hope you'll stop in and visit at some great link parties this week:

What We Accomplished Wednesdays @ Green Willow Pond

The Weekly Thrift @ Young Heart Old Soul