Memorial Day

Memorial Day, formerly known as Decoration Day, is a day to commemorate the men and women who have died in the military service of the United States.

Observed on the last Monday in May, it is traditional to fly the flag at half-staff from dawn until noon on Memorial Day. Many families visit cemeteries and place flags on the graves of loved ones who died in the service of their country.

Other typical Memorial Day observances include a parade with the American Legion color guard, veterans and their families, local politicians, and local community members.

Memorial Day is recognized as a federal holiday, and all non-essential government offices are closed.

How can you and your family observe Memorial Day?

Send a care package to an active duty serve member. Instructions on what to include in the package and where to send it can be found at anysoldier.com

Participate in the National Moment of Remembrance beginning at 3 PM local time, a moment of national unity. Established in 2000, it is a chance for Americans young and old to show gratitude and respect for those who died in the service of our country.

Make and display the American flag. Children can make the flag with construction paper and straws.

Attend a Memorial Day observance in your town. If your town doesn’t hold one, speak to elected officials about planning one.

Speak to your children about the meaning of Memorial Day and the sacrifice that service members and their families make for our safety. Many people see this as a day off from school or work, and the beginning of the summer season, and not a day of remembrance of those who gave their lives for the country’s safety and freedom.

Greeting Card Universe Memorial Day cards

Greeting Card Universe Memorial Day Pinterest board

International Tiara Day — May 24

 

Every woman deserves a tiara. It reminds those around us that we are special, empowered, and intelligent, and we are to be treated accordingly. Bowing to us isn’t always necessary, but a “Yes, of course, your Majesty” occasionally would be nice!

International Tiara Day is celebrated May 24, Queen Victoria’s birthday. You can celebrate International Tiara Day by, certainly, wearing a tiara, and maybe having a tea for friends and family. A tea dress isn’t necessary, but it would be fun to dress up a little bit. And you and your friends will, of course, want to wear your tiaras to your tea.

Tea is served between lunch and dinner, which in Victorian days was traditionally served at 9 PM. In 1840, Anna Marie Stanhope, one of Queen Victoria’s ladies in waiting, was too hungry to wait for dinner. She had a light meal, consisting of  cakes, bread and butter, and tea, delivered to her rooms. She began inviting her friends to these teas, and once the Queen heard of them, she took up the habit. Today, the evening meal is often referred to as “tea”.

What food is appropriate to serve for tea? Queen Victoria loved chocolate, so a chocolate cake would be appropriate. In addition, scones, savory sandwiches, and pastries could be served. And, of course, tea, with a choice of milk (never cream), or lemon.

Whether you celebrate International Tiara Day by having tea or not, be sure to let your inner princess out for the day!

International Tiara Day Facebook page

Greeting Card Universe International Tiara Day cards

Greeting Card Universe International Tiara Day Pinterest board

Barbara Schreiber — April Challenge Winner

Happy Golden Anniversary, Celebrating 50 Years of Love, Gold Champagne card

Barbara Schreiber, Greeting Card Universe April Challenge winner

What awards or contests have you won outside of GCU?

I’ve never entered anything anywhere outside of GCU as I never had the time or the ambition and am too lazy ….

What are your 3 favorite cards in your storefront?

My favorite design is always the one I’m currently working on.

Happy Wedding Anniversary, Cats card

Happy 1st Wedding Anniversary, Two Vintage Birds, card

Happy Birthday, Illustration, grinning Cat in a Bag card

Please list any of your professional social media sites:

I’ve got two blogs, but never find the time to post something.

https://barbara-schreiber.blogspot.de/

https://etoilesandfernweh.blogspot.de/

What was your inspiration for your winning card?  Please walk us through the process of how this card went from an idea to a greeting card.

I pondered on the design challenge subject “GOLD” for some time. (I thought about “you have a heart of gold” friendship card – rejected it) and then decided to do a Golden Anniversary design.

I wanted the gold to be subtly prominent (not as a gold background) and a design that would be elegant (as befits the gold) and more neutral, mainstream, as befits the age group. I did not want an overly romantic card. (That would be better suited for a younger age group).

Two hearts or love birds in gold did not appeal to me as this card is for a more mature age group. As it is a celebration, I chose two champagne glasses instead (more neutral) and I could fill the glasses with “golden” champagne. Besides being the “gold” element, champagne glasses do say: It’s celebration time!

As I’m not a good photographer, I wanted to do illustrations.

I needed a lot of space for two text blocks – one on the top and one on the left of the card – so I placed the glasses and flowers to the right, using a composition form that resembles a J, to give it a more dynamic shape, as I did not want an overly fussy, cluttered design. I wanted the “gold” to pop, so I chose a neutral gray background, keeping in mind that a couple who has been married for 50 years would prefer something romantic, but not overly romantic … (just my thoughts 🙂 and the design would be more classical and fresh, so I did not chose red (color symbolizing love) as a background. I knew the flowers would be pink (did not want the standard red) and I love the combination of gray and pink.

To counterbalance the strict gray background and in order to give it a more playful appearance, I added a big white frame around the gray and more “gold” in the form of circles – the fizzy champagne bubbles, and also so that there would be a bit more of “gold” somewhere else in the design, not only in the glasses.

Since celebrations go together with flowers (and I did want something romantic included, as befits a wedding anniversary), I added some watercolor roses and hearts, as watercolor florals are very trendy at the moment.

I put all the bits and pieces together in Photoshop and played around with positioning and overall look. Thanks to the help of a nice reviewer, I changed the text “golden” in “golden anniversary”, so that it looks nicer and is better readable.

You’ve won many GCU’s Design Challenges What advice would you give to other artists who are hesitant to enter?

Don’t be hesitant. Just do it. It’s learning by doing. Don’t let fear hold you back. You have nothing to lose and a lot to gain. A lot of platitudes, I know, but true never the less. The design challenges make you leave your comfort zone, try out new things, techniques, colors, subjects, categories  … Even if you don’t win, you have tried out something new, which is great! I always enter the challenge because  it takes me into directions I otherwise would not have taken. I often make mistakes and not every painting or image turns out well, but in the process, I’ve learnt a lot.

 

What sparked your interest in art? Did you start as a young child?

Yes, I started as a child. In our family, we had two professional ballet dancers, one artist,and one opera singer. I didn’t inherit the musical traits, but I did inherit the love for creating and art.

I love flowers, nature, animals, so those were the main subjects I did as a child. I experimented a lot and tried drawing with candle wax drippings on a paper (burnt my fingers quite a few times) and rubbing burnt newspaper ash over the image and scratching away the bits of wax that did not look nice. This was done all in black and white and had a sort of dreamlike feeling to it, due to the scratched out parts. That was one of the first paintings I sold – an image of a dove with outspread wings done in that manner.

I started with pencils, charcoal, and over the years moved on to acrylic, silk painting, pottery, pastel chalks, watercolors, mixed media, oil paint and lately digital art.

Do you have formal training or are you self-taught?

I went to art school for one year. The rest is self-taught, especially Photoshop. Before I started creating for a POD site, I just painted and sold my paintings or hung them up on my walls. When there was no more empty space on my walls I started eying the ceilings and thinking about hanging up paintings there and the technical difficulties of doing so, I decided it was time to move on and I discovered GCU. I soon found out that designing a painting is something completely different than designing a card.

I used free photo editors in the beginning (did not even know what pixels, resolution, dpi and layers etc meant in those days), slowly moving on till one day I bought my first Photoshop software. It took me quite some time to learn the ins and outs, and am still learning something new every day. I now use Photoshop CS6. I have a huge library of books on all sorts of art techniques or anything that has to do with art. Every new technique or style fascinates me.

Is your work done by hand and then scanned or do you work entirely on the computer?

Most of it is done by hand and then scanned (the illustrations and paintings). I love using my fingers to rub the paint around. I’ve got Adobe Illustrator, but never really took to it, as I like the smell of paint, the feel of actual paint and for watercolor paintings, I need the real thing as I love the way different colors flow together, mingle, create blooms and granulate.

The collages (vintage elements/photos and other things) are done on the computer. But regardless of which work I do, I give it a make-over in Photoshop, adjusting all possible things, using filters. I just love to fiddle around in Photoshop, try things out, see where it takes me.

Have you ever/do you currently have a job other than as an artist?

I used to be a hostess on two ships (one in the Mediterranean Sea, the other on the Rhine). I worked for travel agencies, then as a foreign language correspondent for several companies, mostly translating or doing secretarial work. I worked in the Netherlands, Monaco, Cyprus and in Germany. I stopped working full time after I got my kids due to health reasons. I taught watercolor and pottery classes. I now teach senior citizens, but only work part time, two half-days a week.

What GCU artist(s) do you admire?

Frankly, there are so many GCU artists I admire – I often look at the “Just sold” carousel and sigh: I wish I had made that card … what a clever idea, color combo, technical skills, imagery, touching text, humor, wit  …  I do want to say a big Thank You to Doreen Erhardt and Corrie Kuipers for sharing valuable tips and information, and to the Reviewers, who are so helpful and whose advice has always made a card/design better!

What would we be surprised to learn about you?

I’m a lousy housekeeper but like to cook (Indonesian, Vietnamese, French, Italian, Chinese). I love to read. History fascinates me and I wanted to study archeology, but unfortunately couldn’t because of financial reasons. I wish I had a time travel machine, so I could go back and forth. I’m very curious what things will be like in 300 years also. I like surreal and quirky things/images. I procrastinate a lot. I spent sixteen years of my childhood in Africa and India and traveled extensively in past days. I love making my own jewelry (wire wrapping, preferably copper, ethno/boho style and when I will have the time, I want to try out metal clay). I often have artist’s block and a white canvas can still scare me.

National Limerick Day

National Limerick Day is observed on May 12, the birthday of English author and poet

Edward Lear, who popularized limericks in his book “Book of Nonsense”, published in 1846. Lear’s book https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=982 is available as a free download from Project Gutenberg.

A limerick is a 5-line poem with a rhyming pattern of AABBA, with the first, second, and fifth lines having 7-9 syllables, and the third and fourth lines having 5-7.

Limericks were originally written as nursery rhymes and then moved into the pubs and became a more adult, bawdy form of entertainment. Whether intended for children or adults, though, all limericks are nonsense and humorous.

Of unknown origins is this limerick:

The limerick packs laughs anatomical

Into space that is quite economical.

But the good ones I’ve seen

So seldom are clean

And the clean ones so seldom are comical.

We asked Greeting Card Universe artist Pat Rapple to try her hand at writing a limerick. Her offering illustrates Greeting Card Universe’s commitment to having “any card imaginable”.

There’s always a reason, it’s true,

For sending one card, or a few!

Silly “National Days,”

Or a card from the heart.

We even can mail it for you!

So, on May 12, celebrate National Limerick Day by seeing who among your family and friends can write the silliest limerick!

Greeting Card Universe National Limerick Day cards

National Lost Sock Memorial Day – May 9

Into what dark abyss do lost sock go? Or are they off at a mismatched sock party, laughing at us for continuing our search for them? It is a mystery as old as time — or, at least, as old as socks. Searching under beds or bureaus, inside pant legs, or in the toy box will bring some of these wayward socks to light, but still, there are those stubbornly AWOL socks. So we put the mate into a drawer and hope for the best. After all, the last time we threw away the mate to a lost sock, lo and behold, the lost sock came back.

National Lost Sock Memorial Day is in recognition of your drawer full of unmatched socks. You’re encouraged to open the drawer and either toss the lonely socks, or recycle them into sock puppets, dusters, draft stoppers, or other creative uses. Make it a game for your children to come up with the most creative use of these single socks. But no matter what, give yourself permission to let go of the hope of a sock reunion one day. C’mon — you know that it’s never going to happen. The lost sock is off living a carefree and happy life of its own, as you should be!

Greeting Card Universe National Lost Sock Day cards

Greeting Card Universe National Lost Sock Memorial Day Pinterest board