What to do with Greeting Cards

So I was sitting around the other day twiddling my thumbs, wondering what in the world I can do to occupy the vast quantities of idle time that I have, when suddenly it occurred to me... GREETING CARD ART!! Ok so I wasn't just sitting around with vast quantities of idle time. But I DID find these adorable greeting cards at a yard sale (see my May 27th Post http://trulyyoursdesignnet.blogspot.com/2010/05/okay-now-one-thing-at-time.html ), and since I recently acquired a couple of $0.50 frames at a thrift store that were in dire need of a little pick-me-up, I thought perhaps pieces and parts of each should meet because they might just hit it off and who knows what could happen! So I set about orchestrating that very meeting...

The box of 50's/60's greeting cards:

The unsuspecting gold frames (marked $1 each, but I talked the owner down- I mean, really, a whole dollar EACH?):

These frames were ugly. Yes they were. So I fearlessly slapped on some off-white paint (whose best friend is Heirloom White SPRAY PAINT?! Can I get an AMEN?), then traumatized distressed the edges a little bit to give it a bit more visual interest. Layers, people, layers.

I thought one of the Get Well cards would work perfectly with some blue polka dot scrap booking paper I already had:

The inside of the card had coordinating artwork. Here is the card unfolded:

So I creased the card and tore it into quadrants. Next I layered the two pieces of artwork, stacked one on top of the other, and cut out around the design of the larger-size print so that the edges of the two would match. I left a LITTLE bit of black along the edges so that it would stand out better from the blue paper going behind it. Looking at it afterward, I wished I'd left a tad more black on the edges, but it's fine.

Next step was to layer the cut out card art, then the scrap book paper, glass, put the back on, and VOILA! A very quick, easy, inexpensive, and really cute little framed art set!

Now you know what to do with those old greeting cards! Wish I'd thought of this years ago before I threw away the cards I received when I was a kid, especially from family members who have passed on. It would be nice to put the signature part behind the artwork in the frame. No one would know it's there except the person to whom it means something. Also, when you're switching out your artwork for the seasons (at least at Christmastime, RIGHT?!), it would be easy to do this with old Christmas cards, and an inexpensive way to add little details to your home for the Holidays!