My five-year-old granddaughter came to stay with us for four days recently while her parents and baby brother recovered from the flu. She is a bundle of energy who also loves to draw and color pictures. I keep copy paper, markers, and crayons, and old envelopes handy for her to use to make cards, but this visit she wanted to make a “real” card for her best friend who has moved.

I let her pull out my stamp sets to choose a few she especially liked. Next, we looked through the Designer Series Papers to decide on a color scheme. Her choice was no surprise; she loves pink, and her friend loves purple. It was great fun to go step by step, looking at paper, stamps, and bling as she made her choices. Although she had strong opinions about what she wanted, she willingly made concessions as we discussed practical matters such as what would lie flat enough to go through the mail, etc.

I had her stamp the images a few times on copy paper before using the SU cardstock. Since we punched out all the stamped images, there was no need for precise placement of the stamps onto the cardstock, making it easier to get great results.

As you can see from the pics, we declared Friday Pajama Day. It was also a day to pull out my old Barbie dolls. We had a great time looking through all the homemade doll clothes and talking about how much I loved playing Barbies with my friends. Surprisingly, she didn’t mind that most everything is pretty worn from hours of play in years past. I had to explain that when I was little, we only had one or two dolls that we made clothes for, unlike nowadays where toy companies expect people to buy a new doll to have a new outfit. Girls are missing out on the fun of searching through the scrap box to find just the right fabric for Barbie’s next party dress. That’s also how my sister and I first learned to sew. It goes without saying that many of the dresses look just like a little girl made them, but my sweetie didn’t even seem to notice all the imperfections.

Here is a closeup of the card we made and put in the mail to her friend. Most of the products we used are retired, so I won’t list them. She and I are both looking forward to her next visit so we can make some more “real” cards!  I have to say that I never imagined the joy that being a grandmother would bring. Grandkids are the best!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!