Gift Ideas 20091028

Post date: Oct 27, 2009 3:38:03 PM

2009-October-28:

I have recently had some opportunities to make some Ambigram Greetings gifts for some dear friends, and have decided to include them in this post.

On the left is a three-photo frame to which I added some name art and word art, as a gift for a baby shower. When "Mommy" opened the envelope and took out the greeting card before unwrapping the gift, she knew right away who it was from without having to read the inside -- "It's a boy!" appears on the front of the card as an ambigram -- but she read it anyways... once she figured out which end of the card was 'up.' In the top panel of the frame are the three ambigrams I drew for the baby's first, middle, and last names, with a decorative border that repeats in the other two panels. The center panel has room for the baby's photograph. The bottom panel has ambigrams of the words "date," "time," "inches," and "weight," with spaces to fill in the 'statistics' of the baby's birth. The hand holding up the frame is "Daddy's." On the right is a three-photo frame to which I added a photo and some of my art, as a gift --one each-- for the two sons of one of my mentors who had recently passed away. In the left panel, I printed my scripture art of John 5:28 over the left half of a photograph of an open Bible. The ambi-fied phrase "In Loving Memory," as featured on the greeting card of the same title, with the woman's name and years of birth and death are printed on the right side of the Bible photograph in the center panel. And in the right panel is a recent photograph that I had taken of her. She had been battling cancer for a very long time. She was such a stubborn woman (in a good way), that it took that long for the cancer to slowly overtake her. I had gotten the chance to visit her again just over a week before she died. I made her lunch that day, before I had to leave for work. When I heard about her passing, I was saddened, but not surprised. I wore a purple dress that she had given me when I went to her funeral. Her favorite colors were purple and yellow. One of her sons placed my gift on a table right next to the video slide show of photos at the reception after the funeral. Many of the guests appreciated my work and recalled the love that "Gram" and I had for each other. It has been a few weeks since then, and I am still mourning for her. (I've had to stop typing three times already to wipe my tears and blow my nose.) I will miss her. "Ellen, may God keep you in his book of remembrance, until the hour comes when all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out. When he will wipe out every tear from our eyes, and death will be no more, neither will pain, nor mourning, nor outcry be any more; and no resident will say, 'I am sick.' " -- John 5:28; Revelation 21:4; Isaiah 33:24.