Wreaths emerged from the dusty attic boxes, the salvation army’s bells stood near their collection buckets, and the department store was filled with holiday cards and matching envelopes.
“A lot of people say’well, I can’t draw a straight line,’” she said. “Well, I can hardly, but by using other people’s straight lines, I can put together something that I think looks beautiful and that other people seem to like.”
Embossed folders and digital stamps are her secret weapons, and an online blog is her way of sharing her creations with the world.
Bostick said that it turns out that the crafting world is not against copying card designs, so she started to get inspiration online by watching tutorial videos on YouTube about two years ago.
“I have improved a lot,” she said. “In the beginning I downloaded a lot of cards and made a card with some clip art. From there I continued to make cards with my own creativity.”
When she has no visitors, the guest room in Bostic’s Marco Island home becomes a craft room. The closet has become a storage area with binders full of stamps and plastic containers for ink and paper.
She downloads digital stamps (which she calls “digistamps”), prints them in black and white, glues them to the card, and paints on the lines to add style.
So far, she has produced nearly 250 cards, many of which are greeting cards, but recently they are all holiday-themed.
A big advantage of DIY cards is that Bostick likes to design personalized messages for the recipient.
“It makes them unique and more personal,” said Messi, who also runs a gift shop called “Between the Tides” in Maine during the summer. “I think there are many people who don’t see it all year round. It’s great to receive a card with a small handwritten message on it.”
Like Bostick, Massey also finds inspiration from online video tutorials and Pinterest. She outlines her design with pencil and then fills it with watercolor.
As a retired litigation paralegal, Messi is now reveling in the opportunity to be creative after retirement. At this time of year, one of her favorite cards is poinsettia, with a layer of gold in the red watercolor.
For those who wish to make their own holiday cards this season, Messi recommends buying watercolor paints and paper online. For example, on Amazon, she found a pack of 100 watercolor papers for $20.
At the same time, Natalie Duff purchased materials-stamps, embossed folders, paper from Joanne’s Fabrics, Hobby Lobby and Michael’s.
Duff sells her cards for $1 to $3 at local handicraft fairs and on the handicraft website Etsy, on her page called “Natalie D Handmade”. She also used a Cricket machine to cut out shapes and glued them together, and then embossed the paper to make it look shiny and metallic, which is a big hit.
“Yes, going to Publix to get a gift card is faster, and there is time and place, but when someone spends time instead of shopping, it’s almost more valuable,” she said.
With high-tech production tools, online tutorials, blogs such as Pinterest, Etsy, and Bostick, DIY activities seem to be a growing trend.
“I think the whole world has always been cunning,” she said. “It’s that more and more people are doing this now. I think it has never been outdated, really.”
Post time: Jun-18-2021