I’ve mentioned in the past that our extended families live far away and we very rarely get to see them. So to keep in touch with the young ones I like to maintain a correspondence with them through the mail. I imagine that from their points of view, it is fun to get a letter addressed directly to them! Here are some photos of the Easter/Spring cards I made for our nieces and nephews (though one child is my cousin’s so he’s not technically a nephew, but I consider him one of the group.)
Both of our families moved away from our extended groups of relatives when we were very young, so neither of us has ever really gotten to know them to the same degree that one would if you could have a holiday dinner together regularly. In fact I can’t remember a single holiday meal enjoyed with family other than my parents and brothers and sister, except for the time an uncle visited around Christmastime once. You hear funny stories that others share about their aunt so-and-so’s special salad and their uncle XYZ drinking one too many glasses of wine, and all the cousins hanging out together, and I must say that I miss having had that. But such is life, and our parents did their very best to make holidays fun, regardless of how many people were sitting around the table. In my case, we had two beloved couples who were friends of my parents, who were very kind and always treated us like we were nieces and nephews.
Anyway, I hope that my writing to my young relatives regularly will make them realize that we are here thinking about them and that we love them.
And in case you’re interested in trying out these cards yourself, here’s how I made them.
For the eggs I make a template using shot glasses of different diameters I drew two overlapping circles and then connected them with lines, as shown. Then using this template I cut 4 base eggs (to make 4 cards). Then I cut out 3 extra egg shapes and using a larger circle I penciled arcs in these, at varying differences. Then I cut along the arc lines using a combination of ‘fancy-edged’ scissors and straight ones. After which I mixed up the pieces and decorated the base eggs. I finished each one with a sticker(s) from my collection.
Once I had my eggs done, I stuck them to some decoratively cut cream coloured card-stock (For the one that has a larger egg outline, I used my template but just drew about 1/4 inch outside so the piece could act like a mat) and then applied these to some pre-made patterned note cards I have, that come with their own envelopes.
This all took at least an hour but they were really fun to make!
Will you be dining with members of your extended family this week-end? If so, is it you who will be doing the cooking or will you be visiting? Our plans are still up in the air but we hope to see my parents for at least one meal over the long week-end. I know that Easter isn’t something everyone celebrates, but perhaps you will toast the coming of spring! … umm, but of course for some, springtime harkens the coming of winter … so how about we just celebrate life :)
Whatever you get up to, I hope it’s joyful.
xo loulou
