Unleashing My Inner Artist, Cheaply

May 28th was my brother-in-law’s birthday. I felt pretty good, because for once I really had my act together. Present -check. Scissors, tape, wrapping paper, shipping box (he lives in California) - check. Now all I had to do was wrap it all up, carefully package it, and take it to the post office to send to California. I got three-quarters done with this task when I realized I had forgotten something very important.

A Birthday Card!

Now, Frugals ALWAYS hate running out to the store for single-item emergencies. This kind of reckless behavior is completely against the Frugal Creed. But for once, I felt I had no choice. As I sat at the kitchen table mentally thunking myself on the head prepatory to heading out to the store, it dawned on me that perhaps I could try something else. Maybe, just maybe, I could try to be - Creative!

This is a pretty revolutionary thought for me. Everyone who knows me and/or loves me knows that I’m not a terribly creative person, especially when it comes to crafty and artistic endeavors. My sisters run circles around me in this department. My little sister actually made her own wedding dress - designed from a Vogue and a Burda pattern (and maybe more that I don’t even know about) which anyone who sews knows are the most difficult and complicated patterns on the face of the earth. And let me tell you, it was beautiful, one-of-a-kind, a magnificent creation. She whips up bridesmaid dresses at the drop of a hat. My older sister recently used her insane genius skills to interior decorate (and I do mean re-upholstering, slipcovering, and drapery making (that is ROMAN BLINDS!!!)) her newly-remodeled home. This house could seriously grace the pages of Country Living Magazine. In the face of this sort of thing, I can only humbly bow my head when considering my own artistic (in)abilities. (But I’m not going to be overly-modest - I knit a mean dog sweater).

Even so, I thought I’d give it a try. I took stock. Hmm, I had blank notecards with pretty Victorian ladies on the front. Nope, my manly brother-in-law wouldn’t appreciate that. Well, okay. I also had a glue stick and some old Dog Fancy magazines. Now we where getting somewhere. My confidence soared even further when I saw that one of the issues of Dog Fancy happened to feature Pomeranians. What’s not to love about Pom-poms?

I knew at once I had all the ingredients for home-made birthday card success. As it turned out, I wasn’t just kidding myself either. I carefully cut out a picture of a cute, happy looking Pom from the centerfold (I just love that magazine). I took my glue stick (thankfully, not dried out) and rubbed it all-over the back of the Pom picture, then strategically glued it over the picture of the pretty Victorian lady, smoothing out all the air bubbles. On the inside I wrote: “Pomeranians the World Over Rejoice that it is Mike’s Birthday!”.

This is funny because my brother-in-law is very manly - into sports and all those manly pursuits (in fact, his birthday present is a super-special autographed basketball).  But at the same time he is very sweet and happy, kind of like a 6′ 6″ Pom, only without all the fur. So I was very happy with this solution to my problem. I signed the card, taped it to the inside flap of the shipping box (so it wouldn’t get lost in all the styrofoam peanuts), and took it to the post office.

Here it is:

He looks cute and happy, doesn’t he? Okay, maybe I won’t be putting Hallmark out of business any time soon but I like it a lot. Plus, this represents a great leap forward in my development as a creative artist.

I haven’t heard yet how he liked his card or present (bad sister-in-law Tessie - I actually sent it on the DAY of his birthday), but I’ll let you know.

Moral of this story: Use What You Have! And You Have More Than You Think!!!!

Update:  My B-I-L received his present yesterday.  He was so taken with the actual present that I had to tell him to open the card (which I was taken with).  He thought it was very funny.  Yayy!  Happy Birthday, Dude!