Plenty of greetings to go around...by Jamie Hill

Last week I started talking about my hobbies, and how writing is not one of them, LOL. I do have a hobby that actually qualifies as one, and that's making homemade greeting cards. My family started this years ago when the price of a fancy card in the stores hit $5. Crazy. 
My husband used to draw stick figure storyboards, similar to comic strips, for me using him and the kids as the characters. I loved those. My boys have made me all kinds of homemade cards from the traditional construction paper cutouts to more recently, computerized photos from my favorite TV shows with captions. It's so much fun to know that someone has taken the time to make something that special for you.
I started making cards about four years ago, and while I don't get as elaborate as some of my friends, I do what I can and I enjoy it. Fellow Books We Love author Cheryl Wright has her own website dedicated to her card-making. Her creations are masterpieces.  One of my girlfriends locally made us such beautiful Christmas cards that I framed them. (When I dig out the Christmas stuff this fall I'll post some pictures. Truly remarkable.)
Sometimes I'll print out a cute e-card or greeting from online and use that for the front of my cards. I can personalize it as much as I like for the recipient. Other times, I get a bit more creative.
This is a wedding card I made recently. On the inside I added a photo of the bride and groom, who had gotten married in a private ceremony a few days earlier. (Since I didn't ask them for permission to post their photo, I blocked that part out.) The circular part is partially cut out and spins, which turned out very cool.


This is a tri-fold birthday card, the smaller rectangle opens to the right and the other side to the left.

Below is another birthday card with a small picture of the birthday girl on the front. 

I have a super cool card ready for Mother's Day but don't want to spoil it, so that photo will have to wait. I'm having lots of fun with the card making. Once I've put in my allotted number of words for the day and taken care of other business, I pop Netflix on my computer and create as I watch/listen to a good re-run (yeah, I'm still on Blue Bloods!)
It's a great way to relax and give me something else to focus on for a short while. Stress relief, I guess you could call it. Thanks for taking a look! I'll share more designs as we go along on Dishin' It Out.
Have a great week!