MFT Challenge: Know your Audience

In my life before kids I worked as a 401(k) consultant to fortune 500 companies. Early on, one of my responsibilities was to send out 50 tabbed and bound reports to my client on a monthly basis. I hated it. It took me a whole day to complete. I still remember sitting on the floor of my office, in my suit/pantyhose/heels, surrounded by piles of paper and metal binding supplies.

A couple months in, I asked my client what they did with all these reports. One they kept on their desk, and the other 49 they just buried in the filing cabinet. Arrgh! All that work for nothing. I was sick, but ultimately happy because the next month I just bound one report and the other 49 were sent on fiche (microfilm). That was my first big lesson in knowing your audience and what they want.

How does this relate to cards?

Many of my cards are sent to kids under 10 years old. I've found (mostly through my own kids) that they usually don't care if you send them a card with the latest trend, hottest stamp set, or most difficult masking technique. What they do like to see is themselves. Plain and simple. They like to see their name and/or a picture of them.

Because we're stampers, we still like to dress things up a little. So you know I was beyond excited when I realized the TV set from My Favorite Things Die-Namics Stay Tuned was the perfect size for framing 2x3 photos. If there's anything kids like to see more than themselves, it's themselves being famous on TV!

This is the card I made for a birthday party my son went to this weekend (he's the crazy hugger in orange). Love how it turned out, and love how the sentiment from Stay Tuned supports the photo.
 
Then I thought of something else kids like ... seeing themselves on the fridge! So I turned it into a magnet.

After mounting the framed photo on chipboard, I die cut a self-adhesive magnetic sheet ($10.50/dozen at Oriental Trading) and adhered that on the back. Ta-da ... now they can look at themselves ALL YEAR LONG!

I made one for my son using the sketch at the My Favorite Things Sketch Challenge. To adhere the TV magnet on the card I used magnetic disks. Two disks hold the TV in place (otherwise the TV slides around with just one magnet). You may also see a glare on the magnet. I die cut a piece of acetate to put on top of the photo so it looks more like a TV screen.
 

Since I had some photos left over, I thought why not die cut those as well. Now he can "change the channel" by switching the photo ... hahaha!

I was just so darn excited about this idea that I ended up making end-of-year Thank You cards for their teachers (this would be great for coaches too!) I used a 2x3 photo of the class and thought the teachers would enjoy the small magnet as a memento of their school year. To make the dresser the TV is sitting on I just cut randomly-sized rectangles from woodgrain paper and inked the edges for more definition.

Then to save on time I just used a strip of woodgrain paper for the remaining two cards. I picked  background papers that reminded me of wallpaper.

This may be my new go-to birthday card concept. I've already got the card started for next weekend's birthday party. It's so easy these days to just grab a picture off FB if you don't have one. My son is pretty laid back about most things, but he really lit up when I gave him the card and he saw himself batting on TV. So worth it!
 

Anyway, thanks for sticking with this long post. I'd like to also direct your attention to Kathy Racoosin who is joining the MFT challenge this week. She is currently hosting a 30 Day Coloring Challenge, where you're encouraged to color something everyday for, umm, 30 days! You can comment to win the dye inks in the attached photo over at her blog.

Thanks for looking!
-Kelly