Why the French hate us.

There aren't a lot of just flat-out goofy cards in my "Grandma's Attic" stash, but this one's a gem:

The poodle on the front of the card has fuzzy black flocking on his head, tummy and paws.

Inside:

It was never sent...I can't imagine why!

Anniversary roses.

Roses, anyone?

The front of this first card is glittered all over with clear fine glitter, and then dotted here and there with specks of green glitter. I'd love to know what kind of glue they used on these cards, because that glitter is stuck on there but good!

Here we have an unsent anniversary card with no glitter, but a super-flirty fun font.

Roses are sort of the generic greeting card flower, aren't they? I promise I'll dig up something a little more unique for tomorrow.

Every pleasant thing.

Happy Monday! We had company over the weekend, so I had to put my cards away, but I'm back.

Someday I want a front door just like this one:

This is another one of those cards with a cut-out in the front that reveals only part of the inner picture:

So, so sweet! The scalloped edge around the picture on the front is a textured gold paper layered between the cover peachy paper and the paper with the top layer of the picture on it. (Three layers of paper on the front cover, in other words.) The card also has a very subtle shimmer to it. From the style I would guess this is a 1940s card, probably sent to my grandparents for their wedding.

Groovy.

Let's visit the 70's for some birthday greetings, shall we?

This card was sent by my mom to one of her parents or one of her siblings who were still living at home, in 1969 or 1970. (I can pinpoint the date because she didn't put my name on the card, and I came along in late 1970.)

Inside it reads, "Wishing you a big bright beautiful birthday!" The rays and all the little round things are embossed, and the orange background has a lightly embossed paintbrush-stroke texture. This totally makes me think of my childhood!

My aunt Molly sent this one to her little sister Carol, in the early 70's. Remember Holly Hobbie being plastered on every flat surface? So sweet and innocent.

The daisies are a very 70's feature, too. I've been reading this book about Laurel Canyon in L.A. and all the drugs and sex and hedonism of the 1970's, but all I remember is prairie dresses and happy sunshine and flowers. It's good to be a kid!

Comfort.

Not every greeting card event is a happy one, of course...here are a couple of very pretty sympathy cards:

Interestingly, this card was sent to my grandparents by my grandma on the other side of my family--in other words, my dad's mother sent this to my mom's parents. This would mean that it was sent for either the death of my great-grandfather Martin or my great-grandmother Martin--my grandpa Martin's parents. Early or mid-1970s, although this card looks older than that to me.

I took out Grandma's last name, since she is still very much alive and I want to protect her signature from the Internet bad guys. I love the borders on this card, with the soft blue edge and the little white flowers--the blue looks great next to the red flowers. What are those flowers, anyway?

I'm not sure who this next card was sent to. It's from a cousin, on the passing of "your sister," and since it came up in a layer of cards from the 1960s and 70s, I'm wondering if it wasn't sent when my grandmother's sister Edna passed away in the late 60s. It's a beautiful card. The flowers in the corners and the little border bits are a soft silver. It has a nice deckle edge, too.

I think that although we're moving to e-vites and e-birthday greetings, nothing will ever take the place of a real, snail mail, sympathy card. I hope not, anyway!

Some lovely flowers for you.

I can't decide if I like the lilacs on this card or not--the purples are so muted, they're almost in the depressing "gray" end of the purple scale.


But the inside of the card is just beautiful:

These lilacs are a little more cheerful:

This is another of those cards where the ruffle peeps out around the front cover:

This feature popped up on several of the cards I found in the boxes from Grandma's house. The ruffles are so dainty and feminine!

Pansies.

I remember reading Little Women as a third-grader, and reading about the "hearts-ease" Beth embroidered on slippers for Laurie's grandfather. It took years before I realized they were just pansies!

Pansies have been a favorite flower for postcards and greeting cards ever since postcards and greeting cards were invented. Here's a "congratulations" card that I'm pretty sure was sent to my grandparents when they got married in 1943:

The ribbon did not scan well--it's a real bit of knotted pink ribbon, tucked at the bottom behind one of the pansies. The pansies are covered with clear glass microbeads just like the ones we used to glue on all our scrapbook layouts a couple of years ago.

I love the little quote on the inside: "Flowers are the sweetest thing God ever made and forgot to put a soul into." (Henry Ward Beecher) The font is wonderful, too--look at the swirly "E" and they way they made the lines go up and down, almost like music notes.

Here's a gorgeous purply get-well card my grandma sent to someone--I can pinpoint the date to 1956-58, because the back is signed with her name, grandpa's name, and, written like steps on a staircase, the names of six of their eight kids. My aunts Kathleen and Carol hadn't come along yet.


And a "thinking of you" card sent to my great-great aunt Carrie:

And finally, a little fairy holding a giant pansy. Hm. That has a slightly different connotation nowadays, no? Especially when the little fairy isn't even wearing pants.

Christmas wishes.

I have so many Christmas cards that I could share one a day for the next several months and not even get to any other type of card! I guess Christmas cards are the sort of thing you particularly save--I know I have a big stack tucked away somewhere.

Is there anything cozier than a winter scene on a Christmas card? Look at that darling little yellow house. The card unfolds to reveal a long letter to my great-great aunt Carrie, penciled on the blank side, dated 1958.

I like the soft creams and tans in this picture, and the snowflakes around the deckle edges. The branches of the trees are lightly lined with silver glitter and gold ink. It looks like it was sent by an attorney or some other business service provider.

The psychedelic swirls on this card tell me that mind-altering drugs have infiltrated the greeting card illustrator world, which puts it in the late 1960s-early 1970s, wouldn't you agree? This card and the first one I showed might as well be from different centuries. This is the kind of card I remember getting in the mail when I was little! It was sent to my grandmother by her Secret Santa, probably from the church's women's group.

Puppies and an angel.

These sweet puppies are even cuter than the kitties I posted a couple of days ago.

Here's the image on the inside of the card:

I love that scalloped edge. The verse on the inside, which I didn't bother to scan, reads "Taking just a moment to send a card your way, to say 'Hello! how are you?' I'm thinking of you today!"

This darling card also has a scalloped edge--with a pink ruffle peeking out around it:


The inside view shows off the ruffle around the edge:

The letter on the back, written to my great-great aunt Carrie, ends with "I want to sew a frock for myself today, so I have to get busy." When was the last time you heard the word "frock?" I think it went the way of kidskin gloves and hats with flowers and veils.

Get well, from the belles.

The southern belle girls on this card make me smile.

Inside:

And on the back, another reminder of all the tea party fun one misses when one's sick:

This card is a "Slim Lovely" card, about which Google reveals nothing. I love the font on that label, though.

Lovingly wishing you every nice thing.

Let's jump into a few birthday cards:

This card is sparkly--the roses are touched here and there with a fine clear glitter, and the leaves and the speckles in the background are actually an iridescent gold. So lovely.

Inside:

I'm not sure who this was sent to, but it was hand-signed by several doctors and possibly nurses from a medical practice.

Many, many of these cards feature cut-out windows in the front that reveal part of the picture on the inside. I love it! Here's one:

Opened, you can see the windows:

The images are actually a little discolored in the spots where the windows are; you can especially see this in the top one. The back of the card reads "Had this ready in May and forgot to mail it in Bible School preparation rush." It's signed by a family I'm familiar with and since my grandmother's birthday is in May, I'm assuming it was sent to her, as well as this one:

This card is printed on a stiff, translucent parchment paper. Inside:

I left the signature intact to show the pretty handwriting of my great-aunt Ruth--her husband John was my grandma's older brother.

Here's a unique and really pretty card with an unusual feature--it folds at the bottom.

Here it is opened--you can see the scallops of the fence at the bottom.

I believe this was sent to my great-aunt Carrie (as opposed to my great-great aunt Carrie--two very different ladies) by a former neighbor. The note on the back reads: "Dear Carrie: Thank you for your greeting received yesterday. I was not as thoughtful as you. So I will send this even if it is late. We picked some beans this morning, now Papa is shelling them. I want to can baked beans. I like to have something handy when I get home late. Wishing you the best of everything, Mary."

One more beauty:

This one has also been very delicately touched with glitter--a very dark silver that you may be able to see as dark lines in the petals of the yellow flower in particular.

Inside is a handwriting I instantly recognize...my grandmother's! There's no indication of who this was sent to, though.

God and stuff.

Many--most--of the cards I'll be sharing here will have a religious touch, even if it's just a printed Bible verse on the inside.

This might be a nice place to tell y'all a little something about the family members who received and sent these cards.

My grandparents are Ira and Martha (Weaver) Martin. My grandfather grew up in Wooster, Ohio, and my grandmother grew up in Columbiana, Ohio. Somehow they each ended up with many of the cards that were sent to my Weaver great-grandparents and my Martin great-grandparents, as well as cards that were sent to one or two of the childless great-aunts and -uncles in each family.

The Weavers and the Martins were both Mennonite families. The Martins were much more conservative--my grandfather found his upbringing to be repressively conservative, in fact, and I think he was relieved to grow up, marry my grandmother, and become part of the progressive Mennonite church. Which was still conservative by modern standards, but at least he could drive his beloved cars.

Anyway, Christian faith was a huge part of life for all of my family, and still is for most of us. I was actually quite charmed by some of the religious cards, as I'd never realized there was so much creativity and art turned toward that market back in the 1940s and 50s.

Changing the subject a little, I've been asked if it's okay to copy images from this blog. I admit, I was hoping people would want to do that--for their own personal use, of course. So please feel free.

Kitties.

When you want to convey sweetness and comfort, some people think a kitten is just the animal for the job. You'll be seeing more kittens later, oh yes you will!

Inside:

This card folds out one more time to provide a full blank sheet on the inside where the sender can--and did--write a nice letter, dated January 13, 1959. She wrote a Bible verse on the inside and several more with her letter, plus a few homey details: "Last evening Ruth, children and I were to Gable girls awhile they seemed so glad and said we should come some more. Harvey took us over before the men started to milk and then fetched us after chores."

This is another card that was sent to my great-great aunt Carrie.