Here are some samples of the cards we have made for one another over the years.  These are some we made many years ago, and

featured in an earlier issue of Family

Discipleship in 2002.  Here you can see them in color.   Above: I cut a heart on a fold, in purple

paper, and pasted pictures of flowers, adding a cat sticker. The white zigzag in

back is a doily heart on the front of the card.

Above: Jennaya cut out flowers, bushes, and an arbor and arranged them to create a garden scene, using cut-out seed catalog pictures.

Here is a simple vase in lavender paper with a few roses glued on the top.

Justin made this card at age

9 when

I was in 

the hospital.

He drew the vase and leaves but cut the roses out of a catalog.

At right is a more complex flower

arrangement by James for me (Joy Marie), again, using seed catalog cut-outs.

Above is a floral arrangement card by Jennaya.  I love the arrangement.  When you cut out flowers from a seed catalog, cut right around the edges and then you can try different arrangements, overlapping the flowers until you get the effect you want. 

At right is a floral wreath card that Justin made for me when he was 9 years old, in addition to the card above.  This is a very simple technique that children can pick up on.  Just draw a circle and have them glue flower cut-outs on around the circle.  Justin did this one as a surprise, though.

Here are the inside and outside of a card made for Judah by Justin.  I really like the way he used similar colors to create a collage that has real eye appeal.  This is another technique that can be introduced to children.  Have them cut out similar colors, and when they make a collage it will be nicer than if they had just put any old colors together on the card. 

    For the inside, Justin used a technique that I taught my children to do.  You glue a doily heart on the front of the card and then glue a floral arrangement on the middle of the heart.  Or you can use a sticker.   

I taught the kids each of these card making techniques, but also let them be creative and do their own thing with the techniques that I taught them.

I've shared these cards so that you can try these ideas out with your family.  We spent perhaps hundreds of hours over the course of grades 1-12 creating cards together with colored paper and various other materials. 

A card is a very useful craft because you can encourage others and cheer them up with a home made card.  We have many more cards already made and scanned to share with you in upcoming issues of our magazines