Preserving Memories Through Art

Over the years, I have saved the greeting cards I receive on my birthday and on special occasions. At the beginning of the year, while I was organizing my archive, I decided to do something creative with them so I could enjoy those motivational messages more often.

My first idea was to use doble side tape to stick them to our featured brick wall, but that idea quickly failed, as the greeting cards kept falling off. That’s when I realized I needed some intermediate support material between the wall and the postcards.

I had previously purchased some canvases from Five Below with the intention of practicing painting. It occurred to me that I could mount the greeting cards on those canvases to make them look like little works of art, and then I could take them down and put them back up whenever I wanted.

With the clear idea in mind, I started working on the project. First, I categorized the postcards by color to maintain a uniform aesthetic. I selected the ones in shades of pink, purple, and yellow, and placed them on the canvases, arranging the colors so that the encouraging messages from family and friends were visible. I even cut some out to fill in spaces.

Next, I glued the greeting cards to the canvas. However, I wanted to leave some messages open to display. I tried something simple first that wouldn’t ruin them like stickers but didn’t turn out to be the best option, as they kept coming off after a few days.

It was during one of my best friends’ baby showers that I had the solution. While helping decorate a wall, I noticed that the decorations were also coming off easily. At the end of the party, I noticed that I had the individual adhesives that come with fake nails in my purse.

That was the moment when it all came together! Those adhesives remind me of the year before, when making a balloon arch for my son’s birthday, I had used those little clear adhesives, known as “glue dots,” to fill in the arch. I realized that they could be the perfect solution to keep the postcards closed, without damaging them.

As soon as I got home, I applied the glue dots to the greeting cards I wanted to temporarily close, and after 8 months, they haven’t come off. This has been the ultimate test to be able to see inside those very special messages!

This project helped me understand more about the types of glues for different surfaces.

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