Birthday cards

My sister and I have always loved collecting the birthday cards that we have received over the years. When we were growing up we would keep them in a shoe box in a drawer under the bed. Now I have a few shoe boxes and they are in my bedside tables. It is interesting to look back at the style of cards from twenty, thirty or forty years ago. It is also nice to read what people have written inside, some of whom are no longer with us.

Since my children were born I have kept all of their cards too. They don't seem to value them as much as my sister and I did at their age but I still keep them. One day they may change their minds. The card above is one that I made in a class and gave to my daughter for her 15th birthday. She was going through an "oriental" phase at the time.

This card is called a waterfall card and I made it for my daughter's 16th birthday. Again it has and oriental feel with the background paper but the girls pictured are  flappers from the 1920's.

This made me think about going to the pictures recently with my daughter to see "The Great Gatsby". I remember studying the book in high school and seeing the 1974 version with Robert Redford. She studied it last year at school and we have come full circle. I disliked the book, the 1974 movie and the recent remake but I could appreciate its aesthetic beauty. My daughter loved the book and the movie.

 Getting back to the card, it is called a waterfall card because as you pull on the tab the panels flutter open with a waterfall effect.

As each panel peels back it reveals the next picture and a sticker stuck to the back of the previous panel. I planned it so that the last panel would reveal a heart.

Do you keep your birthday cards?

Talk again soon

Jeanette