Have any of you ever watched ‘Parks and Recreation’? There are a lot of things I love about this show but mostly The depiction of female friendships. Yes, Leslie Knoppe, played by the stunning Amy Poehler, is insanely positive but the support and kindness she shows her girlfriends is more reflective of the relationships I have with my dearest friends than that shown in other TV shows. One thing I really loved in Parks and Rec was the episode where Knoppe and her girlfriends celebrate ‘Galentine’s Day’, a day to celebrate the love you have for your friends just before you celebrate the love you have for your Valentine.
Poehler, along with her friend Meridith Walker, started a foundation ‘Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls’ and there are loads of fun experiments and things to do on there (the Lamb and I recently did the ‘geodes in an eggshell’ experiment but more on that another day) as well as loads of Galentine’s Day cards.
I’m blessed to have some fantastic friends who have supported me through the good & bad. For some, I wanted to create something a little elegant, so bought some laser cut flowers and birds which I coloured using gel pens. I then pulled out my calligraphy pens and attempted to whip my normally atrocious handwriting into something respectable. They turned out quite well I think and certainly, the girls all loved them.
However, I had some very geeky friends for whom birds and flowers just won’t cut it so I created some more tongue-in-cheek cards, more in keeping with the ideas of ‘Women in Horror Month‘.
I’ve always loved witches, as you can see in my Witch Wednesday post and truly believe that god friends create magic when they’re together. We have the ability to build each other up, and in doing so empower ourselves and others. If that’s not magic, I don’t know what is. I was pleased with how the hat on this card turned up and will attempt this calligraphy style again.
I felt I needed a ‘Frankenstein‘ style card to honour Mary Shelley, but obviously with a Galentine’s twist. I didn’t want to use ‘Frankenstein’s monster so even though Shelley didn’t write the ‘Bride‘ character, I hope she would forgive me for using her here. I’ve also been working to create a little ‘girl’ character I can transfer to a few other projects and so was really pleased with how Frankenstein’s Bride turned out. I’m sure she’ll be making an appearance on assorted other creations of mine.
This was a really fun card to make. So many of my friends support my creative endeavours: through sharing my work, buying it, leaving reviews, or even just telling me its good on those days I ‘wobble’ and question my skills. I’ve long been a fan of ‘Red Sonja‘ and have had a number of conversations about the impracticality of her ‘armour’ so knew I had to feature it. I have a number of friends who LARP so I’m sure they’ll appreciate this card.
Did you send any Galentine’s Day cards? How did you celebrate? Let me know in the comments below.