Americans return to more personalized greetings.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

BILOXI, Miss. _ Kinder, gentler Americans, which is what we're told we've become since Sept. 11, are re-examining priorities. We are staying closer to home, spending more time with family and looking for ways to express deeper feelings to those near and far.

We're cocooning. Remember that old chestnut?

And in our snug little cocoons we are crafting like crazy: learning to paint, doing needlework, building home improvement projects. And many of us are discovering an avocation not new but burgeoning, post-Sept. 11. People, though they have not forsaken e-mail, are writing letters again and, on a more creative note, making their own greeting cards.

It's a pursuit that crafters can take to truly incredible heights or keep as simple as they choose, and to facilitate a transition to that pursuit, there are resources of every sort to smooth the way.

Not the least of these are self-contained kits like ones available in some bookstores. The Great Valentine Kit (made in Hong Kong, $19.99) contains markers, colored pencils, glitter, scallop-edged shears, rubber stamps, a stamp pad, paper of various sorts and two books, one on origami, the other on card-making. It's one way, but not necessarily the best way, to get yourself started making your own greeting cards.

Ruth Ellington, who lives in Gulfport, Miss., and is a local demonstrator for Stampin' Up, says you can buy enough materials to do fabulous Valentines and get only the stuff you want for around $20.

"Go to Hobby Lobby, and you can get two or three stamps and some paper, $2 or $3 for a thing of ink," she said.