Feb 13, 2009
The Daily Poverty Post.
Hey, Bossy’s friend Martha! What’s that shiny thing over there?
Is she gone? Good, because Bossy wants to tell you about her new habit to stretch the stationery dollar. The above photo represents a card Bossy received from her friend Martha for something that has to do with this hideous day.
Sweet card, sweet message inside right? But you know what else is inside? A blank top half, which means Bossy can make a postcard out of this greeting card while still keeping the message intact.
So Bossy folded and refolded that card a bazillion times and then tore the shite out of the weary seam:
Right? The only thing better than this scenario: a few of Bossy’s friends have adapted the habit of writing their message on a piece of paper and sticking that in the card so the entire thing can be recycled!
Has Bossy gone too far? Because that’s where she likes it, except even farther.
I have done this for years with my Christmas cards. Then I punch a hole in the card’s corner so that I can tie it onto a package with a ribbon.
Looking at this signature, we now know who left the mysterious note on our doorstep several months back!
ok…first thing i noticed…
martha is the person who gave you the olive dish forever ago. that post where you were trying to figure out the name…yep…handwriting is the same! and after a few days i stopped checking to see the guesses or to see if you ever said who gave it to you. and right now i am too lazy to go back and find the post to see what the outcome was.
i know. i am so behind!
and i just noticed that janet also came to the same conclusion moments ago. i’m further behind than i thought!
Clever BOSSY.
Oops.
Also?
Dang if that B&W photo with the color card isn’t SPECIAL.
How’d you do that? I love seeing talented people do talented things.
I routinely get cards from my friends that have the message written on a post it stuck inside, and envelope unsealed so it can be reused. At first I thought it odd, but now that I have a nice stockpile of cards to use at the last minute, not so odd anymore!
Greeting cards of all kinds are a GIGANTIC rip-off, so I say, if you can avoid having to pay $3.50 for a piece of stiff paper printed with sentimental tripe, have at it.
good one bossy!!
This is an awesome idea. And if your were a scrap booky type and this were a scrapbook worthy card/event, you could still use the inside in a scrapbook page.
I’ve done this and FRAMED the front of the card as a print and hung it on the wall! Go Bossy!
About 80 years ago my grandmother used to sign all her cards in pencil, then she would point that fact out to the recipient, so they could erase her name, then reuse the card.
Love the idea! Love the picture too, beautiful contrast between the b&w and the color of the card! Nice job!
GREAT idea, Bossy!
My family has been recycling the same birthday card since some time in the early 1970s.
Great idea! I have so many greeting cards that I just can’t throw away.
The absolute best part about this post is recognizing Martha’s signature from that ??? gift from last year? year before? Maybe it was an olive dish? And we all puzzled over who it could be from. Ahh, I can finally sleep at night. It was MARTHA.
Bad, bad me for posting a comment before reading previous comments.
Very clever. I have adopted not sending cards. Your idea is much better.
Didn’t you just post about grammatical peeves? Well, I just remembered mine: it’s stationEry, not stationAry … unless Martha’s dollar doesn’t move. And that’s conceivable given this is the Poverty Post where all dollars are trying hard to stay put.
(You bet I proofread verrrry carefully.)
I learned how to make small gift boxes from the tops and bottoms of old cards. They hold a small item like a bracelet or a folded up bill. I know my Scottish heritage makes me frugal, but does this make me a cheapo or a Recycle Queen?
Never fear, Bossy, you are not alone. As if 7 year olds realize they gave that exact same card to us 5 months ago!!
I also recycle holiday cards by cutting them into smaller cards and using them as gift tags.
What a great idea! Merci!
Pretty card.
An X-acto and straight-edge make an even cleaner cut. But perhaps you don’t have those in your artsy-craftsy drawer.
Just as there’s no such thing as too much toilet paper, there’s no such thing as Bossy going too far.
Is Bossy investing in “Forever” stamps so she isn’t hit with the 2 cent increase in May?
Not too far.
…..but there’s these things you may not have heard of…they’re calleds scissors.
My sister and I are the scrapbooky nerds. We make our cards with cheap cardstock from the craft store, photos, recycled ribbons and pretty fonts from our word program.
I can’t remember the last time I bought a greeting card.
I have done this with my cards for the past few months. Its perfect! I hate spending money on cards.
When I was in high school my friends and I attempted to reuse the same stamp over and over but the USPS finally caught up with us. I started by covering the original stamp with clear tape, and then taping over that. When I sent it on a letter to a friend, she removed the first layer with the postage markings and reapplied another coat of clear tape. At some point the USPS refused delivery–something about how our little recycling game was not legit.
Argh–monopolies.
OK now Bossy has to learn to hang the roses upside down to dry them, presto dried flowers!
Works for me! We also used to burn the edges to give it an artistic flair.
I think the picture at the head of this post would make a great greeting card. You can upload it to Costco’s website and have 4×6 prints made for thirteen cents each. I think 5×7s are more expensive, but still maybe under forty cents. I’m going to do that with some of my own favorite pictures. I can find colorful envelopes in bulk for a very reasonable price, and I can write the greeting on the back of the envelope.
That IS a great idea Bossy. You can use old Christmas cards and make tags for next years’ presents. You can also add your own touches like stickers or stamps or a piece of lace to make new cards. I make my own greeting cards and I save everything from old cards (the thrift store is a good place for those too), magazines, wrapping paper etc. It is so much fun and I make better cards than you can buy at the store. There are tutorials on the web on how to make your own envelopes of different sizes if you would like to put the card in an envelope or put a sticker over the name on the old envelope. REUSE, REUSE, REUSE.
Even if the person(s) wrote on both halves of the card, you could cut out the picture on the front & glue it to some cardstock – making your own card that way as well.