Good intentions aside, how many of us are stocked with sufficient cards? Kids birthday party? Death of a loved one in your circle of friends? Parent's anniversary? Share a practical gift of cards for all occasions. Perhaps you know someone like Mr. Glass (Curious George) who appreciates the unique and would enjoy a gift of cards found no where else. Or maybe you'd simply like to send something a little different this year - a card gift rather than a gift card.

With this in mind, I organized some card gifts outside the sampler packs offered on each product line page (sampler packs are combinations of 12 cards within one of the card lines - Val's Pals, Had Matter Line, River Stone Designs - for $36 USD). Cards are printed with archival inks on heavy cardstock paper and include matching envelopes.

• Cover the Bases: The goal of this card package is to prevent a last minute rush to the drug store because there wasn't a good card to be found in the house! It includes 1 illness/get well soon card, 1 sympathy/grief card, 3 birthday cards (2 humorous, 1 serious), 2 thank you cards, 4 congratulations cards (1 marriage, 1 new baby/addition, 1 new home/moving, 1 graduation) and 1 anniversary card for 12 cards total.


• Beautiful Places: For those with a little wanderlust or a love of armchair traveling, this card package contains 12 designs of lovely places selected from Had Matter Line "Old World" cards and River Stone Designs "In a Blink" cards.


• Circle of Friends: This package is designed to share with your peeps: 4 birthday cards (humorous) and 8 friendly greetings for 12 cards total.


• Ellipse of Acquaintances: Unlike the circle, the foci of the ellipse are not quite aligned. This package contains 12 cards for those you like to consider but perhaps whose sentiments are not quite aligned with yours. Includes 4 birthday cards, 2 congratulations cards, and 6 blank cards suitable for thank you and other occasions.


• Holiday Happiness: Share some holiday love with this package for the most commonly celebrated holidays. Includes cards for New Years, Valentines Day, Easter, Pesach, Rosh Hashanah, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas for 12 cards total.

Purchase options:

Cover the Bases (12 cards) $36.00 USD Beautiful Places (12 cards) $36.00 USD Circle of Friends (12 cards) $36.00 USD Ellipse of Acquaintances (12 cards) $36.00 USD Holiday Happiness (12 cards) $36.00 USD

Gift Recipient Name & Address

Aside from the product lines, I'm often inspired by a theme that I enjoy taking through a collection of card designs. These card packages are united by common graphics or ideas. For example, Lovely Literary combines lines from well known authors with art, and Scientific Method Spectacular offers snippets from various science fields highlighting the role of the scientific method in furthering our understanding of the world on which we find ourselves. Click on the graphic to be taken to the page showing all the designs and purchase options.

• Lovely Literary: This package of 16 cards contains designs inspired by calendar stack dailies featuring famous figures in early literature, from Shakespeare and Basho to Jane Austen and Emily Dickinson. A great gift for lovers of the written word.


• Scientific Method Spectacular: This package of 16 cards celebrates great achievements in scientific discovery and understanding, from a sun-centered solar system to photosynthesis to penicillin. Perfect for your favorite scientist or fan of STEM.


• The Artists' Eye: You might be familiar with Georgia O'Keeffe and John Singer Sargent as famous American painters, but what about Cecilia Beaux or William Merritt Chase? This package of 16 cards showcases works by American artists, from the country's early days to the 20th century. A delightful gift for an artist or art lover.


• Take a Hike: This package contains 16 cards with designs from the Works Projects Administration poster collection featuring our national parks. The designs were created between 1936 and 1943 to publicize exhibits and community programs. A popular gift for outdoor enthusiasts.


• Egyptian Wisdom: "The nut doesn't reveal the tree it contains." In addition to honoring gods and pharohs, Egyptian hieroglyphics speak of daily life, including a number of proverbs inscribed at Luxor and other sites that remain pertinent today. This 16 card package is great for an ancient Egyptian buff or history lover.


• Please Write: Though texts and emails are convenient methods of communication, there is no replacement for a thoughtfully written letter to convey connection and meaning. These 16 card designs contain quotes from well known authors on this excellent pasttime. A terrific gift for a letter writer (or to encourage writing!).


• It Takes a Village: The phrase gained traction after the publication of Hillary Clinton's book about the realities of what it means to raise children. These cards do not concern children or child care, though vital to us all. Instead, these 16 cards capture towns and villages as depicted in the Nuremberg Chronicle, a book of illustrations published in 1493, and other medieaval illustrations. A colorful gift for a book or history lover.


• Inside Out: Impressionism was an art style popular in Europe in the late 1800s, following the Realism movement from France in the 1840s. Impressionism seeks to capture the essence of a scene through external means like light and layered color. Expressionism out of Germany followed Impressionism but focused on the artist's subjective experience of a scene, through use of vibrant color and distorted perspective. These 16 card designs contrast the two styles through showing similar subjects (streets, portraits, hills) with very different artistic rendering: "inside" for the subjective experience and "out" for the external light. A terrific gift for an artist or art lover.


• The Language of Flowers: Selam, the Oriental Language of Flowers was an old Persian poetical art introduced into Europe by Charles II, king of Sweden, when he returned to Sweden after years of exile in the Ottomanian court. His courtiers adopted the mode of speaking through flowers,Durch die Blume sprechen, which spread throughout western Europe. These 24 card designs feature sentiments or symbolism of popular flowers from plants and trees. A colorful gift for your favorite romantic or fan of flora.


• The Rose Family: The poem by Robert Frost of the same name is the inspiration for these 24 card designs featuring black and white photographs of roses. Each design contains a line from the poem or line from another poem dedicated to those most luxurious of blooms. The perfect gift for a photography lover, romantic, or flower lover.


• The World in Black and White: The 24 card designs in this package feature black and white photographs of outstanding locations throughout the country. Most of the designs are taken from scans of film negatives taken before the rise of digital cameras. A great gift for a photography lover or traveler.


• It's A Sign: This card package contains colorful watercolor designs for the 12 signs of the zodiac constellations as well as four general zodiac designs. A colorful gift for those who enjoy ancient astrology or follow the horoscope.


• Designing Women: The terrific proliferation of magazines, periodicals, and books at the turn of the twentieth century opened opportunities for women illustators. This package of 28 cards features designs from a handful of these successful women artists. A great gift for a lover of children's books and illustrations.


• Snow in the Sonora: Every now and then, snow will descend on the Sonoran Desert, blanketing the cacti with a cool white covering. More often, snow visits the sky islands, those mountainous regions rising above the desert basins. These 14 designs feature snow and winter weather in this otherwise sun-drenched region. A great seasonal gift for a desert dweller.


• Ruminating on Redoute:Two great creative powers combine in these 16 designs with watercolor botanicals by Redoute and deeply thoughtful poetry by Rumi. Redoute was a botantial artist with the patronage of French queens, and Rumi was an outstanding Islamic teacher, scholar, and poet living near the Persian empire in the 1200s. A great seasonal gift for artists, poets, deep thinkers, and old souls.


• Magnoliophyta: The phylum Magnoliophyta includes flowering plants, like these detailed black and white illustrations from early botanical catalogs, complete with scientific name and origin. Combined with brightly colored pastel backgrounds, these 16 card designs are sure to please flower lovers and botanists.


• Midsummer Night's Dream: Lines from Shakespeare's comedy combine with rich, textured images by the British illustrator Edmund Dulac of fairy tales across the globe. A great seasonal gift for lovers of theater and fairy tales.


• Fortune's Wheel: The Wheel of Fortune, or Rota Fortunae, is a symbol of the capricious nature of Fate, with the Roman goddess Fortuna spinning it at random, bringing misfortune or windfalls to hapless mortals. Shakespeare often referred to the role of fate and fortune in his works, and excerpts from his plays are combined with early playing cards as a means of fortune telling or playing with fate. These 16 card designs are a good gift for a theater goer or someone interested in early cards and fortune telling.


• Western Sea: Poets such as Robinson Jeffers and Walt Whitman were inspired by and wrote of the beauty of the California coast. Areas of the southern California coastline produce spectacular curling waves, close to shore and breaking boldly. These 18 card designs feature black and white photos of the ocean, along with lines from the poets. A great gift for someone who enjoys the sea and poetry.


• Pennell For Your Thoughts: The artist and writer Joseph Pinnell created a collection of sketches featuring architectural subjects during America's golden age of illustration in the late 1800s through early 1900s. These 12 card designs feature scenic views from America and Europe in drawings and watercolors. A terrific gift for an enthusiast of American art and artists.


• Seventeen Syllables: A traditional Japanese haiku contains seventeen syllables, written in three lines with a 5/7/5 syllable count. The seventeen syllables in the 16 card designs featured here are reflections on motherhood, in honor of Mother's Day. Share some love, roses, and syllables with the mothers!


• New Wave: There is no moment quite like that of a cresting ocean wave, when a wall of water rounds and crashes with spray and foam. These 16 card designs capture those gorgeous and ever changing moments. A great gift for those who could use an ocean infusion.


• The Water Sound: Water sounds and quiet thoughts are the inspiration for the 16 designs in this card package, with lines from Japanese haiku poets (Basho, Issa, and Sogu), Rumi (Islamic poet), and Lao Tzu (or Laozi, the Chinese philosopher and author of the Tao Te Ching). The brilliant blue designs are a good gift for anyone who enjoys simple but deep poetry.

There's also a Joie de Vivre subscription with cards for a perennial gift of cards and jewelry, sampling all the product lines in a single annual shipment.

The gifts on this page do not require purchase of a gift box; they will be packaged and sent to the recipient listed under the "Gift Recipient" field free of charge. Card gifts are tied in ribbon and wrapped in tissue.

Gift boxing is available for other items on the website by purchasing a gift box for each recipient and entering the recipient's name to each item added to the PayPal cart, enabling multiple gift recipients for each order. See the gift box instructions for ordering information.

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