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CARD-BONANZA! |
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A while ago I made a silly decision. A couple of years before I graduated from college, I thought: well, I’m almost an adult. I should totally start sending holiday cards out to my relatives! Then they’ll know who I am, and that I exist, and we can be a big happy family! I started small, with some free postcards and neoprint stickers of me, in case my far flung relatives didn’t know who I was. I probably sent out 20 or 30 of these cards. I stressed over the cost of postcard stamps. |
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But then the craziness began:
In 1998 I picked up a sheet of wrapping paper with a ridiculous screaming girl on roller skates from pearl paint. I chopped up the girl, glued her onto sloppily cut pieces of blue cards (as you can tell by the non-straight scan), and wrote a flip note inside. I finished these during winter break at my mother’s house. She still may have a scrap girl next to her computer. And in the spirit of high class, I mailed them in security
envelopes. The white kind, perhaps from a dollar store. Very nice. |
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In 1999 I had graduated and taken a stellar cross-country trip with my roommate. I took advantage of the color copier at work (after work hours at least!) and made some copies of photos of me on the road. I glued them onto more exactly cut pieces of red card stock, and mailed them out in actual non-business envelopes. |
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There were four poses total. I could only find three – we’re missing me at the petrified forest smiling out of a stone-wood house. I was careful to send appropriate poses to certain individuals -- like, the mother of my secret crush turned new boyfriend got the very proper “me on the beach.” My holiday card list was slowly expanding. I was up to at least 50 people in 1999. |
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By 2000 I was getting nervous about what I had started. My holiday card list had started to creep up to about 80 people! I was secretly horrified at what I was doing. This year, I went simple. I found some really lovely thai paper at Pearl Paint and made quick and easy cards. Inside I wrote a short personal holiday greeting. The thing is, I didn’t want to stop doing this. It was my main method
of communication with some of my farther off friends and relatives. And who
doesn’t like getting mail? |
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After 2001
for the first time I wanted to make some kind of statement with my cards. So
I made my most technical holiday card to date: a piece of vellum, stamped
with a peace dove and embossed sparkly snowflakes mounted onto a piece of fibery red paper. I got the toaster oven out and set up a
production line on the living room floor. Stamp, sprinkle with powder, stick
in the toaster, remove, repeat. I was pleased to neither burn the house down
nor scorch more than a couple of cards. |
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Next year was a backlash against high effort cards. For 2002 I went with my old school trusty cut and paste method. This time I found a neat page of wrestlers. As I told my gramma “I’m a pretty ridiculous person, I guess, and it’s not like it will come as a surprise to anyone!” I guess this year was the first I signed my name, also. Wild. |
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