cards for Mum

Mum is the most conscientious and consistent thank-you-note writer I know, which I admire greatly. I like to make cards with calligraphy greetings on them, which she admires greatly. This works out wonderfully because my mom buys me beautiful scrapbook paper, and in exchange, I make calligraphy cards for her using some of the paper. (Did that even make sense? I'm feeling the effects of sleep-deprivation and need to go to bed.)

Recently Mum asked me to make "congratulations" cards for this year's graduates as well as some new thank you notes. Last weekend I calligraphied the greetings, and yesterday and today I sat down and put the cards together. They are simple but (I hope) pretty and elegant. The final count came to 29 thank you cards and 10 congratulations cards. I just have a few finishing touches, and I'll be able to deliver them to Mum.

Here are some of my favorites:

I made a birthday card almost identical to this one for my sister-in-law. I think she'll like it.

Our local high school's colors are blue and gold, so I did my best to make cards in the school colors for the high school graduates.

I love this red and gold paper!

This burgundy and brown tapestry-like paper is another of my favorites.

I carefully matched the colored segment of this pattern to the brown segment for an interesting effect.

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with this one. Sometimes I think it's just so striking, and sometimes I'm not really impressed.
I am beginning to experiment with Copperplate writing. I have loved Copperplate for so long but was always a little intimidated. I find that everything about it comes quite naturally (thought not perfectly yet) to me except writing at a 45 degree forward slant. I'll have to dedicate some time to practicing. This is a little sample of my own pre-Copperplate script.