Quirky'nBerkeley Solidifies My Love For Handmade Greeting Cards

I'm not sure where my obsession with greeting cards comes from, but I definitely am obsessed. It's hard not to be when there are so many talented card makers on Etsy. When I was eleven years old, I used to make handmade cards for my friends. I was pretty good at it, and really enjoyed designing them. Then ma few months before my Bat Mitzvah, my mom insisted that I hand make invitations for my immediate relatives. At first I liked the idea, but then it turned out the design I came up with was far more complex than I was willing to make. I told my mom I didn't want to make them but she made me do it anyway. I finished them, mailed them out, received the replies, and had a great party. I thought all I had left to do was go through all my gifts and count all my money, but no! My mom told me I had to hand make Thank You cards for EVERYONE. I think I cried. I definitely stomped my feet. Despite my efforts to get out of it, I made the cards. I think that's when I suppressed my love for handmade greeting cards.

A few weeks ago, I started paying close attention to the paper products on Etsy and my feelings started surfacing. I bought a few cards and hearted numerous others. Since then. I've been drawn to more and more card shops. It's becoming ridiculous. Last week, after doing an Etsy search for greeting cards, I came across Quirky'nBerekely's Playdate card. The picture really grabbed my attention because it reminded me of a playground structure I built in Havana a couple of years ago. I clicked on the listing and entered the shop. After two or three "oohs" and "aaahs," I realized... I was obsessed. I quickly remembered why I haven't thought about greeting cards in along time. I tried to remember what it was I liked about making cards but I couldn't remember. so I decided to ask Quirky'nBerkeley what it is about cards that drives her to make more and more. This is what she answered....

"My work is designed to be something that one person gives to another. I'm lucky to have a craft that has a personal role in people's lives, and that can so easily become a part of the story of people's lives together. Gifts are imbued with all sorts of symbolic significance in every culture, and I'm always interested in the stories that people tell me about how they've used my cards -- who it was for, why they picked that particular card, why it touches them in some special way. Giving a handmade card is an act of intimacy since it is touched by very few hands-- the hands of the maker, the sender, the recipient. Being its creator allows me a role in a beautiful ritual."

"It feels good to be the recipient of hand-written correspondence: no matter what the occasion -- there's a strong emotional connection during the moments of anticipation, and when it is held and read; the mystery of what's inside the envelope, wondering what prompted someone to stop everything else in their life and focus for a few minutes on writing this note. Your full attention for a few minutes is a very special kind of gift to another person, in a hand-written note that moment becomes frozen in time."

"A handwritten note and its words can be touched by both sender and receiver and is always intimate; a handcrafted card is one that is created with these things in mind, and it is very likely the only one of its kind. Its maker sculpts the card from paper and other elements into a montage that is simultaneously an act of self-expression awaiting an act of overlaying it with new meaning in the giving from sender to receiver and used for one, specific moment in time."


You can visit Quirky'nBerkeley's shop and blog at:

Website URL: quirkynberkeley.com

Etsy URL: quirkynberkeley.etsy.com

Blog URL: quirkynberkeley.blogspot.com