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Something Beneath The Surface
Collection 1
Fine-Art Greeting Cards
Created by Vanessa Bork—Vancouver-based watercolour artist and writer.
Some things are meant to be kept.
Something Beneath the Surface is the first collection from MAISON DE VAVA: eight fine-art greeting cards created to hold the words we give one another—and the ones we hope will be kept.
Each card begins with an original work of art and thoughtful message, reproduced on beautifully weighted, uncoated paper and left blank within for words of your own.
Made for birthdays and thank-yous, beginnings and losses, celebrations and ordinary days, these are cards for the moments that become part of our stories.
Because sometimes the smallest things carry something much larger beneath the surface.
You crossed my mind, and I didn’t want to keep that to myself.
A simple gesture of connection, for no particular reason other than wanting someone to know they are held in your thoughts. Connection makes space for the small reaching-toward that keeps a relationship alive across ordinary days, distance, and time apart.
For: Thinking of you · Friendship · Long distance · Reconnection · Just because
I’m here. Not fixing. Just here.
Sometimes presence is the most meaningful thing we have to offer. Here is for the moments when advice is not needed and answers may not exist—a quiet reminder that someone does not have to carry what they are facing alone.
For: Difficult seasons · Grief · Illness · Mental health struggles · Heartbreak · Support
Exciting and hard, all at once. Both are true. Both make sense.
Some beginnings carry more than one feeling. Threshold honours the complexity of standing between what was and what comes next—without asking someone to choose between gratitude and grief, excitement and uncertainty.
For: New beginnings · Moving · New job · Graduation · Retirement · Parenthood · Life transitions
I keep choosing you, in all the ordinary moments.
A love letter to the life that happens between the milestones. Love celebrates the quieter form of devotion found in returning to one another, again and again, through the ordinary days that ultimately make a life together.
For: Anniversary · Wedding · Partner or spouse · Valentine’s Day · Everyday love · Just because
You’re such a steady presence in my life. I hope you know what that means to me.
For the person whose presence has become part of the architecture of your life. Seen is an expression of appreciation for the people who remain, support, listen, and quietly make life more bearable simply by being in it.
For: Friendship · Gratitude · Family · Mentorship · Appreciation · Just because
Another year of becoming who you are.
A birthday card about more than growing older. Becoming celebrates another year of living, changing, discovering, and becoming—with room to honour both who someone is and who they are still becoming.
For: Birthday
There aren’t really words for this. I wish I could make this easier. I can’t—but I’m here.
There are experiences no words can repair. Witness offers something quieter: the willingness to stay beside someone in what is difficult, without trying to make meaning of it or make it disappear.
For: Grief · Loss · Illness · Heartbreak · Difficult seasons · Sympathy and support
The way you show up for me—I don’t take it for granted.
For the people whose care is felt in what they consistently do. Tended offers gratitude for the relationships sustained through attention, reliability, generosity, and the many quiet ways we show up for one another.
For: Thank you · Friendship · Family · Caregiving · Mentorship · Appreciation · Just because