Stamping Heritage - A Family Card Exchange

When I was younger, I would sit across the table in my grandma's kitchen. I'd happily color stamped cards with markers and splatter glitter everywhere while my grandma smiled encouragingly. She always encouraged my crafting - no matter how much of a mess I made. And she always praised my latest creation - no matter how much it deserved it or not. 

I love my family's strong crafting heritage and the encouragement I got from all of my aunts and my grandmother to keep cutting, taping, and inking things up. It's part of what turned me into the crafter I am today. That's why I'm happy to be able to display my family's latest initiative - A mailed card exchange. 

We used to throw "card parties" and we'd each make a set number of cards based on the number of participants and then exchange so we would wind up with all different cards. It was so much fun! But, alas, things have changed and we are now spread in six different states! To keep things going, we've decided to move our card parties to the post office.

It was so amazing to receive the packages of cards, organize them all, and mail them out to their next destinations. It was like Christmas the week the cards were supposed to arrive, and I'm sure my postman wondered what I was up to! All in all we created and exchanged 182 cards! I'd say that's pretty impressive

Without further ado, here are the lovely creations of my family:

    

This is the card I created for the exchange, and am entering into The Color Throwdown Challenge #309. I love how cheery it turned out. I colored the hippo from the "Pun Fun" stamp set using my Spectrum Noir markers. 

If you have some crafty family members, consider starting and exchange of your own! It's a great way to encourage crafters to hone their skills. (And the cache of cards you'll build up is its own reward!)