June 9, 2023 — Whether or not you ever send this tongue-in-cheek card, here’s hoping you have umpteen friends you could send it to! Kinda thinking many of you do, because it zoomed right to top-seller among the 24 new cards we released this week. 🤩

It was Contributing Cardie Roxann Hassett who clicked on our Submit Messages page and suggested the sentiment that so tickled us. Because we thought it sounded like a great toast, we went in search of a “women toasting close up” image on the stock photo sites, a search that ultimately required at least a dozen woman-hours to find the pic we felt fit the message perfectly. That said, we weren’t fans of the friends’ original nail color, so designer Brandon had to use his prodigious photoshopping skills to give them a mani using my old reliables: Essie’s Ballet Slippers and Lady in Red. 😉

Roxann’s original message actually began, “To one of the wisest, kindest, most generous women I know.” After some deliberation, we declared that there were likely more “fun” than “generous” friends in the world, and so went with fun in hopes of making the card its most sendable. But here’s the irony: Roxann is truly one of the wisest, kindest — most generous! — women we know.

She first reached out to us in mid-December 2021. She’d just placed an online order for five boxes of Tree of Life notecards and wanted to confirm we had the correct shipping address for the friend she wanted the holiday gift sent to. Five boxes. How generous is that?!

Then it was Roxann who proposed that we create VOTE postcards to help volunteers boost turnout in the midterm elections. While she was upfront about wanting such postcards to support a much-admired friend of hers running for office, her commitment to the greater good was also clear. Roxann’s generosity of spirit prompted us to offer the postcards free to other civic-minded Cardies across the land, and her brainchild is still available to those working to bring attention to get out the votes at their local level.

Roxann also lobbied us: “I have a friend who is a huge gardener. She has saved the Meanings of Life Hummingbird minicard I gave her last year and wants to paint it on her garden fence. However, she’s afraid that copyright law would make it ‘illegal’ to do so. I’ve assured her that copyright law would NOT pose a threat. However, she’s concerned it might. I think you’d be thrilled, and the artist who created the hummingbird would be flattered. And wouldn’t it be a fabulous feature in the Cardie Newsletter!?”

By then I’d learned that this big-hearted woman always looking out for her friends is a respected LPC (licensed professional counselor), so I knew she could take it when I replied, “Gotta say, we’re with your gardener friend on this one, Roxann. But because you’ve become such a great and giving member of our Cardie Community, tell your friend to do us proud (and add © Cardthartic to that fence!)”  I was kidding about the circle-c, so that you’ll not see.

When we sent Roxann her proposed design and asked if she might like to dedicate it to someone, she responded, “Oh my gosh. I am touched and honored! Yes, please publish it.” Then she asked what many kind and generous Contributing Cardies before her have: “Is there a way I can dedicate it to the friend who inspired my words without other friends feeling left out?”

As you’ll see on the card back, we proposed, “To all wise, kind, fun women,” and she happily agreed. In Roxann’s name, what say we all have a fun, friend-filled weekend!

Jodee Stevens
Founder & Chief Creative

June 9, 2023 — Whether or not you ever send this tongue-in-cheek card, here’s hoping you have umpteen friends you could send it to! Kinda thinking many of you do, because it zoomed right to top-seller among the 24 new cards we released this week. 🤩

It was Contributing Cardie Roxann Hassett who clicked on our Submit Messages page and suggested the sentiment that so tickled us. Because we thought it sounded like a great toast, we went in search of a “women toasting close up” image on the stock photo sites, a search that ultimately required at least a dozen woman-hours to find the pic we felt fit the message perfectly. That said, we weren’t fans of the friends’ original nail color, so designer Brandon had to use his prodigious photoshopping skills to give them a mani using my old reliables: Essie’s Ballet Slippers and Lady in Red. 😉

Roxann’s original message actually began, “To one of the wisest, kindest, most generous women I know.” After some deliberation, we declared that there were likely more “fun” than “generous” friends in the world, and so went with fun in hopes of making the card its most sendable. But here’s the irony: Roxann is truly one of the wisest, kindest — most generous! — women we know.

She first reached out to us in mid-December 2021. She’d just placed an online order for five boxes of Tree of Life notecards and wanted to confirm we had the correct shipping address for the friend she wanted the holiday gift sent to. Five boxes. How generous is that?!

Then it was Roxann who proposed that we create VOTE postcards to help volunteers boost turnout in the midterm elections. While she was upfront about wanting such postcards to support a much-admired friend of hers running for office, her commitment to the greater good was also clear. Roxann’s generosity of spirit prompted us to offer the postcards free to other civic-minded Cardies across the land, and her brainchild is still available to those working to bring attention to get out the votes at their local level.

Roxann also lobbied us: “I have a friend who is a huge gardener. She has saved the Meanings of Life Hummingbird minicard I gave her last year and wants to paint it on her garden fence. However, she’s afraid that copyright law would make it ‘illegal’ to do so. I’ve assured her that copyright law would NOT pose a threat. However, she’s concerned it might. I think you’d be thrilled, and the artist who created the hummingbird would be flattered. And wouldn’t it be a fabulous feature in the Cardie Newsletter!?”

By then I’d learned that this big-hearted woman always looking out for her friends is a respected LPC (licensed professional counselor), so I knew she could take it when I replied, “Gotta say, we’re with your gardener friend on this one, Roxann. But because you’ve become such a great and giving member of our Cardie Community, tell your friend to do us proud (and add © Cardthartic to that fence!)”  I was kidding about the circle-c, so that you’ll not see.

When we sent Roxann her proposed design and asked if she might like to dedicate it to someone, she responded, “Oh my gosh. I am touched and honored! Yes, please publish it.” Then she asked what many kind and generous Contributing Cardies before her have: “Is there a way I can dedicate it to the friend who inspired my words without other friends feeling left out?”

As you’ll see on the card back, we proposed, “To all wise, kind, fun women,” and she happily agreed. In Roxann’s name, what say we all have a fun, friend-filled weekend!

Jodee Stevens
Founder & Chief Creative