When I’m bored and want something creative to do, one of the things I keep coming back to is making cards.

My mom is actually the serious papercrafter in the family. She’s a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator, has her own papercrafting blog at pspapercrafts.com, and even makes YouTube videos sharing her projects.

I’m much more casual about it.

I usually pick up one of the Stampin’ Up! kits or a Paper Pumpkin box, sit down at my desk, and make a card or two at a time. The kits make it easy because most of the creative decisions have already been made for me. I can just pull everything out and start making.

There’s something wonderfully satisfying about that.

No big project.

No need to become particularly good at anything.

Just paper and stamps and glue and twenty or thirty minutes spent making something with my hands.

Over time, I’ve started accumulating a little stash of finished cards.

Most of them eventually become birthday cards. I love being able to remember someone’s birthday and then walk into my office and choose something I’ve already made rather than making a last-minute trip to the store.

But this week, I decided not to wait for an occasion.

I pulled one from my stash and mailed it to a dear friend back home.

There wasn’t a birthday attached to it. Nothing had happened that required a card. I just wanted to send her something and let her know I was thinking about her.

Today, I got a text from her.

It made her day.

And suddenly this little hobby I’ve been doing when I’m bored felt like something more.

Making something before it’s needed

I’ve been thinking lately about the difference between making things simply to have them and making them with the possibility that someday they’ll be given away.

When I sit down to make a few cards, I don’t necessarily know who will receive them.

I’m just creating a little inventory of kindness for Future Me.

Then someone’s birthday comes around.

Someone has a difficult week.

Someone accomplishes something worth celebrating.

Or maybe someone I love is simply on my mind.

And there it is.

A card already waiting.

All that’s left is to write the part that matters.

Kept because

Because creativity doesn’t always need a grand purpose.

Sometimes I make a card because I’m bored and making something with my hands feels better than scrolling on my phone.

But sometimes that little thing I made on an ordinary afternoon eventually travels through the mail and lands in the hands of someone I love.

And apparently, sometimes it makes her day.

That’s a pretty good reason to keep a stash of handmade cards around. ✦

My mom shares her Stampin’ Up! projects, tutorials and papercrafting ideas at pspapercrafts.com.