Penpal cards for Guides

My grand daughter is in Guides and this year my daughter is helping out with the troupe.  They are doing a penpal project and she asked me if I could come up with some cards that would be appropriate.  I had created these cards with used Canadian postage stamps earlier this year and thought I would be able to come up with something similar for this project.  As I played with the concept I thought maybe the design required too many steps to be completed in the time allotted and did not have any creative options for the girls to add their own twist to the cards.
After playing in my used postage stamps stash I came up with this design.  It is a #8 card with a shortened front flap which just happens to hold 20 regular sized postage stamps! I applied mine in a very orderly manner to create a very tight mosaic pattern but I will not be applying that criteria to the girls.  They will be allowed to create any background they wish with the 20 stamps I supply.  Some have all the same stamps for the background and others have a variety within the run of stamps available with the series they were part of.  Needless to say, there were a few days of sorting stamps and removing many from their paper backers before I had enough for the 34 girls in the troupe but it was a good stash buster!!  Once I had all the stamps ready for the backgrounds I searched the rest of my collection for stamps that featured well known Canadian people or activities.  I found Canadian astronauts, hockey players, Canadian singers/songwriters along with  provincial landscapes, etc.  These larger stamps were layered on black and became the focal elements for the cards which can be added to the cards to create either a portrait or landscape card.  I embossed small rectangles to glue to the bottom of the inside back of the cards which were colour coordianted with the front.  So I think there will be enough flexibility in this sketch for the girls to add their own twist to their cards.  I will be teaching the class next week if the weather holds and I can attend the meeting.  If not, I have delivered the card kits to my daughter and she will guide the girls through the process of making the cards for their penpals.

Therese