design: Mackenna Miller
I’m the type of person to keep every single card I have ever received. Birthdays, Christmas, and Thanksgiving. Store bought, handmade, and sad excuses of a card that are just pieces of paper folded in half – most of them are kept away in my closet collecting dust, yet I don’t have the heart to get rid of them.
My godmother always makes cards by hand. No, I’m not talking about the sad excuses of a card, more like layers of cardstock layered and precisely cut, glued, and hand stamped together. Knowing that she spent hours crafting a beautiful card to send to me from Connecticut, I felt that they had to have a better use than sitting in a very sad cardboard box.
At the end of my freshman year as I was searching through old memoirs and scrapbooks she had made, I had an “aha” moment. The cards I collected throughout the year could be compiled into my own scrapbook documenting my years throughout high school.
I’m lucky enough to have the craftiest godmother ever who has so many supplies that she doesn’t know what to do with it, so she just sends it over, but as I tried to buy my own supplies, I realized it’s quite expensive. However, because I’m so awesome, I found a more cost-effective way to print pictures and get supplies.
Most people, when getting any art supplies, go to local stores like Michael’s or Joann’s, but the task of buying paper, stickers, and whatever the heart desires add up quickly. All of a sudden you already blew $100.
Scrapbook.com has everything needed. They sell scrapbook and card making kits for any occasion for around $15. This is great if someone wants to start card making for holidays and birthdays and can have many uses which is such a steal for $15.
Printing pictures can be really tedious because, depending on the size of the picture, it can be expensive and inconvenient to have to go and pick them up from the store. The Canon Ivy Mini is a b0luetooth printer that can print pictures directly from a phone.
What’s really cool about it is it doesn’t use any ink, so you don’t have to buy ink cartridges. Don’t ask me the science behind it. I have no idea. You just download the app, select the picture from the camera roll, and then in five seconds it’s printed. I’ve seen prices range from $79-$130, but in my opinion, it’s totally worth the investment.
It’s good for everyone to have some sort of hobby or project that doesn’t involve any cognitive thinking and isn’t stressful. For me, scrapbooking and cardmaking is peaceful and looking back at my younger self not only makes me cringe, but also helps me remember special moments.
