Spread Love not Corona. – By @elisaczerwenka

Spread Love not Corona.

Last week was my birthday.

FaceTime, Netflix Party and ZOOM made it a lot more fun than I had imagined. I spent almost all day with family and friends just chatting or watching films together. Unfortunately, this feeling doesn't last forever. I realised that I missed one simple thing that I usually don't care about much: Greeting Cards.

Usually, I get at least one from each family member, my boyfriend and my three best friends. And for obvious reasons, this year I couldn't receive any. Soon I realised that there must be thousands of others in the same position. Celebrating their birthdays alone, anniversaries apart, or had to uninvite people from their weddings etc.

So, my partner Ellie and I came up with "Spread Love not Corona" greeting cards. We wanted to make something that acknowledged what's going on, and hopefully helps people to laugh about it. Digital, for now, to reduce the stress on the postal system. Only essential items are allowed at the moment.

We started writing lines for different occasions and soon had dozens of them ready. When we started talking about the style of our cards, I immediately thought of a friend from uni, Clarisse Hassan. She is an incredible illustrator and on top of that, a lovely human being. I messaged her, and she was on board immediately and is helping us to turn our ideas into adorable illustrations every single day.

Our plan is to keep making people smile as long as the isolation continues. Of course, we hope to get out as soon as possible, at the same time, we are enjoying how creative this situation has made us and many others.

Here are two other great projects to follow, that wouldn't exist without isolation:

Give a Sheet

Artists from all over the world expressing their feelings on sheets of loo roll. You can buy prints, and 100% of it will go to the COVID-19 relief fund.

Bored Solutions

www.bored.solutions

A place to find ideas of things to learn, make & do while self-isolating.

For more information about our greeting card project, visit our twitter page @LoveNotCorona or Instagram, @_LoveNotCorona.