What are the benefits of making greeting cards?

Creative Crafting: 8 Health Benefits of Card Making

Do you enjoy card making or being creative through other artistic avenues? Did you know there are well-being benefits you can gain in the process?

According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, creative expression creates a powerful contribution to individual health and well-being. Research in the area of artistic expression covers music, visual arts, dance, and expressive writing.

For this article, we will look at the benefits of creative expression by making card crafts. Card making can be therapeutic for those who are making them and fun to whom you give them. Learn these eight card-making benefits and why they are helpful!

8 Specific Benefits Gained Through the Art of Card Making

Creative Expression

Art and hobby crafting is a fantastic way to pass the time and express your creativity. This is also true with card making. Recent research shows that crafts such as card making can be more than just a simple hobby. Also, creating them gives you many health benefits. This includes improved mental health, increased cognitive function, and improving daily moods. In short, card making expands your overall wellbeing and health.

Relaxation & Productivity

When making creative cards, you can relax, be more productive, and "busy" yourself doing things you enjoy. Even retired individuals benefit from making cards and creative crafts — feelings of joy increase in accomplishing something.

Using your hands and creative mind enhance your mood. The work of making cards uses various types of papers and other art materials you have on hand. Card making can become a source of income for some individuals.

Card Making Relieves Stress

Any art activity provides a relaxing form of hobby. Card making naturally reduces stress levels. Moreover, the art gives feelings of calmness to the soul. Creative crafting takes your mind off from what is "bothering" you. As a result, you create to express yourself more positively. Art creation with cards can include drawing or using a variety of embellishments.

Card Making Reduces Depression

In our current culture, instant gratification makes us feel happy and satisfied. The rise of this "convenience culture" leads us to be more impatient in our lives. Typically, we do not like to wait for anything. In this cultural "reward system," our minds desire to do less work while still attaining personal goals.

Frequent failures in life create chemical imbalances in our brains. This often leads to depression cycles. Card making teaches us to focus on what we do. So, through the experience, we increase in the area of patience. This takes place while we use the creative expression – through creative processes. Then, a sense of accomplishment takes place.

Our overall sense of joy and peace increases through creative card making. Also, we give to others (the card recipient) in the process.

Overcoming Severe Chronic Health Conditions

Card making and other expressive arts help to overcome a variety of severe chronic health conditions. Several studies reveal the creativity and music effect conditions of patients. This can positively help patients improve their overall health status.

Making cards and other imaginative crafts allow patients to concentrate on a new focus. Also, card making gives them an increased sense of purpose. Art hobbies help individuals express who they are.

Patients also learn to cope with what they feel in the process. As a result, hope and peace increases in their lives.

Creative expression through art hobbies can help:

· Dementia patients

· Fibromyalgia patients

· Individuals with memory loss

· Decrease anxiety

· Increase positive thoughts

· Individuals with HIV

· Overcome insomnia

· Lower depression

· Women with breast cancer

· Those in elderly care

· Decrease agitation

· Helps lower aggressive tendencies

· Improve cognition

· Enhances creativity

· Increases pleasure response

Improving Mindfulness

Card making allows the individual to learn to practice "meditation." Mindfulness meditation methods are rising forms of relaxation in these modern times. It helps us clear our mind and concentrate on the moment at hand. It allows us to step back from the daily pressures that we meet.

Moreover, all forms of art, such as card making, are a great way to practice mindfulness regularly. This method gives us the chance to be calm more often. We gain the ability to unwind while still being aware of what is going on around us.

Promotes Self Esteem

Card making promotes self-esteem and provides a sense of fulfillment. Low self-esteem can come from mental health conditions or ongoing challenges in life. Common factors include stress, depression, and anxiety.

Creating a finished card or craft product boosts a sense of fulfillment. Creating craft projects allows for ongoing creativity. In a sense, it offers a reward system for the brain.

Increases Community

Crafting in hobby groups increases community. Positive social benefits add to the overall health reimbursements. Interaction with others provides a sense of belonging. As a result, self-esteem and morale are boosted. Moreover, there is joy in being with others.

Inner Expression

Being creative allows for inner expression. Card making offers a method of innovative therapy. The art form lowers depression, relieves stress, and expands mindfulness.

Also, the hobby is great for those who have chronic conditions. The activity promotes self-esteem, increases community, and allows for the release of inner expression.

Make Changes Today, Protect Tomorrow

Changes made today protect your tomorrow. Adding a creative craft-making hobby, such as card creation, can improve your life today. Moreover, it advances your life in the days ahead of you.

So, why not take up a creative art hobby ongoing to help heal emotional instability, increase self-reflection, and reduce stress in your life? There are many benefits to gain in the process: including relaxation, increased productivity, and the ability to overcome health challenges more readily. Creating cards and other artistic avenues will bring increased peace and hope to the soul. Mindful meditation becomes a way of life, reducing stress levels and increasing self-esteem.

Take Time for Self-Expression

Take time to yourself to do something you enjoy! Moreover, consider creating a family craft session or getting together with another group of like-minded souls.

Everyone will reap the benefits psychologically (mind) as well as physiologically (body). Arts and health have been at the epicenter of human attention since the beginning of documented history!

Do you enjoy card making or crafting? How do you find it beneficial to your health?

We would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions! Please leave us a comment below!

The recipient of a greeting card typically looks at the envelope and cover or front image before reading the message inside the card. During this process and afterward, the recipient tends to think of the sender. There is a psychological dimension to every stage of the process of selecting or designing, sending and receiving greeting cards. A basic understanding of how cards influence senders and recipients can be helpful for choosing business or personal greeting cards or designing  custom greeting cards.

The Cultural Legacy of Greeting Cards

People have exchanged illustrated greetings and sentimental tokens for centuries. As early as the fifteenth century, Europeans were making greeting cards. Inscribed sentiment cards for occasions such as Valentine’s Day dates back to the 16th century. Modern style greeting cards date back to the 19th century, including the first Christmas card designed by John Callcott Horsley in 1843 and the start of commercial card production during the 1860s.

Over the last 150 years, cards and illustrated messages have been used to communicate sentiments about life experiences and shared events. According to the Greeting Card Association, the most common type of cards are for birthdays. These annual celebrations are ideal opportunities to take a moment to send cards with personal meaning. Holidays and special occasions can also be good opportunities to send cards to business contacts, family and friends. The card design and message indicate the sender’s perception of the recipient and the nature of their relationship.

The Psychological Effects of Greeting Cards

There are cognitive and psychological aspects to comparing card designs and selecting the best card for an occasion or designing custom cards. The frontal lobe of the brain processes thoughts and memories about recipients during this process. The card a sender selects reflects on his or her relationship to the recipient and how they want the recipient to think of them upon receiving the card.

The priorities of senders vary depending on whether cards are sent in a personal or professional capacity. Personal cards should correspond to the relationship between sender and recipient but can express sentiments that go beyond the official statement of a business. A sender may prefer to select individual card designs or order cards in bulk.

Business greeting cards should communicate an appropriate message and reflect positively on the enterprise. Professionals may find greeting cards useful for reinforcing their role, such as with occupation-specific holiday cards. Any business may enrich their network by sending greeting cards to customers, clients or other important contacts to share birthday greetings or acknowledge other occasions.

Expressing Identity With Custom Greeting Cards

Sending cards is a mode of communication that starts. A sender selects a card based on the occasion, design and message. Depending on whether the sender is communicating in a personal or professional capacity, he or she may prefer an informal or formal card design and message.

Senders should consider the identity and values of intended recipients as well as their own position. To make the best impression, the design and message of a card should be relevant, express regard for the recipient and indicate shared values. These elements represent the identity of the sender and his or her perception of the recipient while communicating the message depicted on the cover and printed or written inside each card.

Recipients are more likely to appreciate cards that connect with their thoughts and feelings and communicate a timely message. For this reason, you may prefer to send  Christmas cards or seasonal greetings to recipients on a business contact list. Even the details of card design can communicate important values to a sender. Selecting cards that are made of recycled materials or support causes reflect priorities that go beyond the occasion.

Strengthening Social Bonds With Greeting Cards

Greeting cards are physical objects that can be kept and examined by hand, as opposed to digital communications. This mode of communication is more tactile and can be more persistent than a digital message. Recipients are likely to positively recall the experience of receiving a thoughtful and well-chosen card and associate this exchange with other positive memories of the sender.

Selecting and sending the right greeting for an occasion and recipient requires time and thought. Even if you order cards in bulk, the decision to communicate with customers, clients or other professional connections in this manner makes you stand out from the competition. Personal cards are a means of self-expression that reinforce bonds with family, friends and other contacts.

The occasions on which you send cards reflect your values and can help you maintain important social relationships. In an age of digital communication, the choice to send greeting cards has a special touch. This is one reason why an average of 6.5 billion greeting cards are purchased every year in the United States. Convey the precise message you want to send by designing custom greeting cards.