"Happy Birthday"

"The custom of sending greeting cards can be traced back to the ancient Chinese, who exchanged messages of good will to celebrate the New Year, and to the early Egyptians, who conveyed their greetings on papyrus scrolls. By the early 15th century, handmade paper greeting cards were being exchanged in Europe. The Germans are known to have printed New Year's greetings from woodcuts as early as 1400, and handmade paper Valentines were being exchanged in various parts of Europe in the early to mid-15th century, with the oldest Valentine in existence being in the British Museum.

By the 1850s, the greeting card had been transformed from a relatively expensive, handmade and hand-delivered gift to a popular and affordable means of personal communication, due largely to advances in printing, mechanisation, and a reduction in postal rates with the introduction of the postage stamp. This was followed by new trends like Christmas cards, the first of which appeared in published form in London in 1843 when Sir Henry Cole hired artist John Calcott Horsley to design a holiday card that he could send to his friends and acquaintances. In the 1860s, companies like Marcus Ward & Co, Goodall and Charles Bennett began the mass production of greeting cards. They employed well known artists such as Kate Greenaway and Walter Crane as illustrators and card designers.

Technical developments like colour lithography in 1930 propelled the manufactured greeting card industry forward. Humorous greeting cards, known as studio cards, became popular in the late 1940s and 1950s.

In the 1970s Recycled Paper Greetings, a small company needing to establish a competing identity against the large companies like Hallmark Cards, began publishing humorous "whimsical" card designs with the artist's name credited on the back. This was away from what was known as the standard look (sometimes called the Hallmark look).  By the 1980s there was a thriving market for what were now called "alternative" greeting cards, and the name stuck even though these "alternative" cards changed the look of the entire industry."

www.wikipedia.com

National Grandparents' Day

"National Grandparents' Day is a secular holiday celebrated in the United States since 1978 and officially recognised in a number of countries on various days of the year, either as one holiday or sometimes as a separate Grandmothers' Day and Grandfathers' Day.

Queensland was the first Australian state to officially celebrate Grandparents' Day - on the first Sunday in November 2010. A range of community events took place in schools and at sporting events around the state. New South Wales held their first inaugurl Grandparents' Day on Sunday 30 October 2011, and will be celebrate it each year on the last Sunday of October. This year's Grandparents' Day is being led by council on the Ageing NSW (COTA NSW). The Australian Capital Territory and Western Australia held their first Grandparents' Day in 2012."

Christmas is on it's way!

A few of my Christmas cards for this year. 

Please excuse the glossy images - I only remembered to photograph them after I had packed them in clear bags ready for my next craft market.

 

Bright, Victoria

After enjoying a stay in the High Country, a few of my cards are now available to purchase at Gallery 90 in Bright.  You can visit their website at: www.gallery90.com.au

If you live nearby, you can see my photo albums and latest cards at the next Treasures & Tastes @ Trinity, in Surrey Hills, VIC on 19 October and 16 November 2013.