I have been feeling the crush of time constraints lately and knowing that I have a lot of cards that I need to write including thank you notes, thinking of you cards and birthday greetings, I was feeling a bit anxious about not having time to create some homemade cards.  Then I stumbled upon an idea that got me to thinking about how to make a few simple cards using charms that are normally used in jewelry making and I got busy.

A quick trip to Hobby Lobby where every single item that I needed was either 50% or 40% off. The one item that I needed that wasn’t on sale I could use my 40% off coupon through the mobile Hobby Lobby app and I was one happy girl.  Let the crafting begin.

The items that I had to purchase that I did not have on hand already in my massive crafting stash were some corrugated paper and charms.  I already had a plentiful stock of brown craft paper cards and envelopes, jute for tying the charms on and of course an endless supply of rubber stamps and stickers for the added embellishments. 

I definitely had a lot of fun playing around with different papers and designs using my materials I had on hand.  I love the way the corrugated paper adds texture to the plain brown craft paper cards and the good thing is how quickly these come together.

Using corrugated paper and charms on craft paper cards creates a unique look.

I worked on getting a few cards made that offered simple but different looks and I loved how they all came together so uniquely.  Lately I seem to have a thing for owls.  It might be the influence of Chris’s Grandma Betty whom I admired so much as she loved owls and had a lot of owl themed items in her apartment. Regardless of how the attraction has come about I found the perfect owl charm to include on a card for an upcoming birthday.  How cute did this card turn out? This really was a simple idea and I have an entire stack of cards that I created in a very short time frame.  The photographs do not do them justice.  I need to get my Square Perfect Photo Studio set up that Micah got me for Christmas so that I can take much more professional looking photos but for today these photos will just have to do.  Anyone can make a homemade card using these ideas—buy premade cards and envelopes, a pad of corrugated paper, some charms, jute  and a bit of glue ( I usually use Elmer’s Glue Sticks, Zots Singles, and Ad Tech Tape Runners)  and get started.  I would love to see how creative some you can get with just these items so if you venture out and make a few cards of your own please share them with me.  I would love to see them.

Do you like to receive homemade cards or store purchased cards?  Do you still send cards or are you more of an email type of person these days?  I still cling to writing letters as often as I can and love the feeling that I get when I have time to sit down and craft a letter to a friend.  I think it is a dying art.  I would love to hear your thoughts on this.  Chime in in the comment section and remember Comments for a Cause this month goes to support Blessings in a Backpack.