Mini masterpieces

I prefer slow correspondence – as in I love a good old fashioned phone call and I love to receive mail. As an adult in this technology driven world, I find the majority of postal mail I receive is bills, and that’s not much fun to receive. When I do receive a card, postcard, or letter in the mail – oh là là! – the sender has made my day!

As much as I love to receive snail mail, I find even more pleasure in writing little notes to friends and family. Ever since we came back home from the hospital, we have made time to make art with Mon Cœur. It’s been therapeutic for the whole family and as a bonus it’s a way for us to share her creativity with our loved ones. We’ve played around with stamps, paint, highlighters, and crayons, and I’m amazed by our little artist!

I snagged some old-school printer paper in the size of a postcard and the thickness of card stock from my dad’s office supply stash recently and Mon Cœur and I have been having a ball making postcards. It’s a fun way for us to make art together, and then it doubles as cards for her to send notes to friends, or, until she is able to write, a way for her to have a hand in sending thank you cards.

I start by taping down the printed paper along the perforated dotted edges, then I let Mon Cœur go to town. I jump in too, playing with new textures, tools, and what not. For the mini masterpieces above, we experimented with sponge painting, q-tip dabbing, hand printing (her all time favorite!), and a spice jar shaker (see the circle with the smaller star of circles?) – I’m not sure who has more fun making this art!

After we finish painting, we let it dry, then I remove all the tape and I separate each card. I love how the whole original “canvas” is cropped – it makes for interesting art and postcards. We file these cards away for another day when we are thinking of someone or want to send a thank you.

When it’s time to send a card, I lay out a few different ones and tell Mon Cœur, “We are going to write Aunt Sissy today. Which card do you want to send her?” She is very vocal in her choices! She often tells me what to write, and then she insists on helping to “stamp” our return address and put the “sticker” (stamp) on the envelope. Many a recipient have received blurry or duplicate return address stamps and wonkily placed stamps on their envelopes, and yet I’m not worried because she is learning and having fun, and life’s not perfect, so neither should be the stamp placement!

Merci beaucoup for reading this post! Do you have questions or suggestions for a post? Email me at mamansmonde(at)gmail(dot)com.

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