Office Worker Leaving Card, Shirt + Tie, Personalised

One of my husband's work colleagues is leaving next week after a fair few years of service...  considering how quickly some of them leave by comparison, in any case!

He will be missed as he's worked closely with Hubby for years, so I wanted to make a very 'individual', personalised leaving card that included some of those elements that would have been part of his daily work life.

Whether this is inspired or insane, it's currently making its way 'round the office.

They seem to like it, at least!

Want to see?

It's an 8x8 huge beastie of a card...  

8x8's use to scare the pants off me, but now I'm less intimidated by them than I used to be.

You see, I'm a fan of Sheri Gilson's work...

Sheri is a woman who seems to instinctively know what colours, patterns, textures, embellishments and layers will work together and if you look at her work you will often see 'finished' panels that stand their own ground as fully finished pieces.

She somehow knits these panels into a bigger and always perfectly balanced design that's a real feast for the eyes...  and unbeknown to me, I think her influence in making these panels is beginning to rub off a little.

I will never hold a candle to her work, but that's ok.

I'm still grateful for the inspiration...

That's not to say that I enjoy making 8x8's yet though as I often hit a 'sticking point' towards the end and lament the fact that I should have chosen a CAS design!

(Yeah, like they're so easy...  

...  That's irony - just in case you weren't sure!)

Now before I forget I should also thank Marybeth for sharing a link on her blog a while back about these dollar bill 'folding shirts'.

Of course, being in the UK meant that an actual dollar bill wouldn't work for this design, but as Hubby has a stash I 'borrowed' one for dimensions and cut some thin paper to use instead.

(...  and I've kept the dollar bill for future craft use - obviously)!

So what 'work elements' can you see on this card?

The answer should be two business cards and two spreadsheet tables of sorts.

I've torn, inked over, partially covered and even butchered down to just a teeny tiny logo in one case, then covered one with Distress Collage Medium 'Crazing', one with the same Medium in 'Vintage' and one in 'Matt'.

These 'print offs' were not on the best quality paper (hence the Collage Medium treatment) so one was spray mounted onto a second piece of paper and the other onto thin card.  

(And if you're wondering why the butchered logo got the 'Vintage' treatment it's because the colour of the business card didn't work with the rest of my design).

A stamped image of a laptop would have been perfect for this, but alas I don't have one and had to make do with the pencil pot instead.

I'm thinking I should email Mr Holtz with a plea for a 'techie' line of this style stamps.

I need a laptop stamp, you see!

So what else have I used on this card?

Supplies Used:

Dies:

Marianne Design Collectables 'Tab With Text'

Taylored Expressions 'Little Bits - Neckties'

Poppystamps 'Classic Ribbons'

Holtz/Distress Inks:

 Stormy Sky

Black Soot

Pumice Stone

Spiced Marmalade

Vintage Photo

Other Ink:

Memento/Tsukineko 'Tuxedo Black'

Ranger Perfect Medium

Embossing Folders:

Sizzix Texture Fades 'Notebook'

Spellbinders 'Fabric Weave'

Stencils:

Holtz 'Splatters'

The Crafter's Workshop 'Coffee Splotch'

Memory Box 'Texture Line Up'

Stamp:
Stampers Anonymous/Holtz 'Schoolhouse Blueprint'

Distress Collage Mediums:

Crazing

Vintage 

Matt

Other:

Staple

Paperclips

Patterned Paper

Challenges I'm Entering...

Simon Says/Monday Challenge

(We've Got Your Number)
The numbers might be oh so very tiny, but they are there!

SimonSays/Wednesday Challenge

(Anything Goes)

Allsorts Challenge
(Week #142 - I Spy...  'B')
'B' is for Business Card, 'B' is for Brown

Mix It Up
(Just For Fun)

Make My Monday
(Challenge #44 - Embossing: Heat or Dry)

Thank you so much for brightening my day...

Donna. x

Engagement Card, Photography Enthusiast, Congratulations

I haven't posted for a while, have I?

There is a reason why, and for those of you that have been on my Facebook page today you may have already seen and clicked on the link...  so you will know.

But for those of you that may not use Facebook, you can click 'here' if you want.

At least then you'll understand why I disappear from time to time...

Anyhow...

I wasn't planning on making anything for a few days yet, but on Tuesday of this week at around midday my husband messaged me to ask if I had an engagement card to hand for one of his work colleagues.

I did not, but being a 'crafter' meant that the need to make one couldn't be dismissed - even if time constraints meant it would be dark in a matter of four hours max.

And I can't craft in the dark.

Believe me, I've tried...

Even with decent 'daylight' bulbs and lamps I can't get past the fact that I'm not seeing colours in their 'true' form.

So this was a quick 'make' for me that took about three hours - 

at least half an hour of which was used just on trying to get this card blank 'square'.

I still haven't figured out why I can't manage this feat which is why I'm not even attempting to cut and score my cards from scratch as yet - except for the odd exception when I have no choice, of course!

Here's the card...

It's not my best work, but it's ok...  especially as the main recipient was for a man and a suck at making cards for men!
(Should I 'say' that out loud?  Oh well, I just did)!

At least it's not overtly girly!

As this photograph was taken in the dark (it went straight off to work with my husband the following morning), the colours may look a little 'off', but I've messed around with the White Balance (thankfully my editing app now supports this), so hopefully you will see that you are looking at a white, black, red and grey colour combination.







Supplies Used:

Dies:
Simon Says Stamp! 'Sketch Heart'
Marianne Designs 'Filmstrip'
Memory Box 'Heart Delights'

Embossing Folder:
Sizzix Texture Fades 'Notebook'

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress 'Black Soot'
Ranger 'Perfect Medium'
Memento/Tsukineko 'Tuxedo Black'

Embossing Powder:
WOW 'clear'

Other:
Tonic/Holtz 'Paper Distresser'
Stamp from stash
Padded fabric heart from stash






Challenges I'm Entering...

Pixies Crafty Snippets Challenge
A card made entirely from scraps/snippets

Simon Says/Wednesday
'Something New'
(Hopefully an engagement counts)!

Now that November and December are finally over with (I completely ignored Christmas just to be able to cope with it - but I did at least make a batch of last minute Christmas cards that hopefully made their way to those of you whose address I have),  I'm hoping to get back into the swing of craft making.
I haven't wasted my time away from Blogland, though...
Sometimes tidying and sorting is just as therapeutic as 'making'.


Thanks for stopping by...

Donna. x

CAS Tag, Vase and Flower, Butterfly

Have you been playing along with the current challenge at 'Tag You're It'?

 There's less than a week to go but that's still plenty of time to get those creative juices flowing! 

For those of you who may not have had a chance to stop by at Tag You're It lately...  You may not know that we now have a 'Featured Artist' for each new challenge, bringing us their own design to work with and giving us and you even more inspiration to play along with.  

Yay!!!
So if you have the time, why not give it a go?

My tag for this challenge is probably the most CAS thing I have ever made...  and boy did I struggle leaving all that white space.
I have to confess I tried many, many ways to incorporate some colour into the background...  but not one of them looked right.  And yes, I did consider Embossing Folders...  but then I would have lost the definition of the 'flight path' stitched detail.   

So in the end I resigned myself to the fact that, in this instance, lots of white space was the way to go...   but to make myself feel better I did spray the whole background with glitter varnish before adding the vase, flower and butterfly.  (And yes, it really did make me feel better)!

Here's my tag...

...  and here's a close up so you can hopefully see the glitter varnish...

  

I'm always trying to find ways to sneak in a little dimension with my CAS projects.

How did I achieve that on this design?

Well, firstly I chose a die that I could emboss and add colour to. Then I cut a bottom flower head in red and the top overlapping in a deep pink colour.   

Then I chose a stitched detail that adds to the scene without adding any colour whatsoever...  and added a butterfly that's glued only at the centre - so I can raise the wings a little. 

Cutting the vase from vellum and then inking around the edges meant that any glue that would normally show through was now hidden - I just spot glued behind the inked edges only.

Even my glitter varnish base gives added texture - how's that for a happy coincidence?

I will never be a one layer girl and I'm ok with that.  It's simply not in my skill set.

Why worry about what I cannot change?  We can't all be good at everything, after all!

The Featured Artist for this challenge is a lady by the name of Amy Tsuruta.

Here's her tag on a card...

It's easy to see where I got my inspiration from this time, isn't it?!

Supplies Used:

Dies:

Sizzix Thinlits 'Flower Vases'

Marianne Designs (Creatables) 'Tiny's Tulip'

Memory Box 'Peaceful Butterfly Wings'

Memory Box/Open Studio 'Busy As A Bee'

Ink:

Tim Holtz Distress 'Walnut Stain'

Tim Holtz Distress 'Forest Moss'

ColorBox Pigment Ink 'Frost White'

Other:

Crafter's Companion 'Spray and Sparkle'  (Pearl Diamond)

Vellum

Ribbon

Challenges I'm Entering...

Simon Says/Wednesday 
Anything Goes

Pixies Crafty Snippets Challenge

(Made entirely from Snippets)

Shopping Our Stash

Challenge #262   'A Stitch In Time'

Allsorts Challenge

Week #373   'Anything But A Card'

Stamping Smiles Designs

Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge #14

(Add Dimensional, Intricate Dies, Ribbon)

CAS-ual Fridays

Challenge #153   'Gift tags'

Cardz 4 Galz
Challenge #27   'No Patterned Paper'

Wishing you the happiest of weekends...

Donna. x

Button Card, Peeping James, Male/Female

I reconnected with an old friend that I hadn't seen for a number of years recently...  She's one of those kind hearted souls that will do her best to help anybody.

This card is one of three I'll be posting over the next little while that are all baby themed...  and all for her.  She's helping me out by trying to keep me busy.

I'm still not quite ready to go into details as yet (if ever)...  but suffice it to say that this is the hardest, saddest year I have ever had to face - and it will not get better.  Not ever.  Yes, I know it will hurt less in time, but trust me on this one.  There is no coming back from it.

So...   I'm sorry that I'm behind on my commenting yet again.  I do save the emails I receive so I will catch up with you all just as soon as I'm able.

I rewrote my blog profile yesterday and coined a phrase that I'm not sure if I've made up myself or heard somewhere else before...  'Gluing my life back together one craft make at a time'.

Anyone heard that before?

Either way, it's spot on for me.

So...  Now that I've given at least some sort of explanation for being MIA, here's a peek at my card.  (He is called 'Peeking James', after all)...

This might not look much like a baby card to most of you.  Young child?  Yes.  But baby?  

They are really not my thing at all, so I've made them all 'Donna' style - and tried to make them all very different from each other.

You know...  I was messaging a lovely craft friend of mine just the other day and bemoaning how long it takes me to take a photo I'm happy with.  And I finally did it...  took a decent photo where my square card looked square enough...  and then realised AFTER spending an age editing it that the mini envelope on the card looked like it was falling apart. Which it wasn't...  It's just that the top flap is actually not glued down in reality and it made for a strange optical illusion. 

So I had to secure it with a spot of White Tac - just for the sake of the photo.  It's a shame because now it's lost some of it's dimension.  But at least in reality it's flap free!

I mess around a lot with different ideas (see photo below)... 

After more than a week of staring at the New Arrival sign that I added to the card I still couldn't decide which one I liked the best...  The before or after?

So I sent a HELP ME message to the same lovely lady I mentioned earlier and quite truthfully said I think I prefer the before - what about you?

She (thankfully) agreed with me.

But what about YOU?

Do you prefer the first or the second version of this card?

My husband and the woman I'm making them for both prefer the second...

Supplies Used:

Stamps:

Lili Of The Valley 'Peeping James'

Sentiments from Crafters Companion

Die:

Marianne Design/Collectables 'Tab With Text'

Punch:

Woodware 'Scored Rectangle Envelope Punch'

Inks:

Stazon 'Timber Brown'

Tim Holtz Distress 'Walnut Stain'

Other:

Twine

Buttons

Challenges I'm Entering...

Stamping Sensations

'Anything Goes'

Pixies Crafty Snippets Challenge

All Snippets

Aud Sentiments

Challenge #155  'Anything Goes'

The Sisterhood of Crafters

'No Design Paper'

Creative Card Crew

Challenge #112  'Anything Goes'

Thanks for stopping by...

Donna. x

Mixed Media Tag, Rustic House, Male/Female

I'm much later than I had hoped to be with getting anything finished, photographed and posted on this blog...  and I'm woefully behind on commenting again...  but truth be told I'm dealing with some stuff that's hellish right now.  I'll update the Autism section at some point soon to give more details...
All I'll say for now is it involves my daughter and in many ways we're going through a similar situation to the hell we faced five years ago.
Life can be so very unfair...

 I'm sorry to those of you I regularly stop by to say hello to.  I will try my best to catch up again...

*

I'm here today to share my DT take on Erin's tag over at Tag You're It.
Are you playing along?

I tidied up my craft area over the Christmas break so I could finally get back to something a little more 'messy' design wise.  A little bit of ink, some texture paste and my beloved dies were all that was needed for this quick and easy make...

Now normally I would get myself all 'het up' about that cloud at the bottom not being perfectly done.  But seriously, you go look up at the sky and find me a perfectly formed cloud.  

You found one...  Really???

In other words...  I can live with it.  Just this once.  And if I change my mind it will be very easy to place the stencil back over and reapply a bit of extra texture paste.

Here's Erin's tag...

I was initially stumped over what to do instead of that caravan (I have no vehicle dies or stamps) and toyed with the idea of a window, tree and cloud mini scene design...  until I had a rummage through my die cuts and found this house.  It's so basic and 'rustic' looking, but there's just something about it that I absolutely love.  And it has a door AND a window...  just like the caravan :)

Supplies Used:

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress 'Mowed Lawn'
Tim Holtz Distress 'Stormy Sky'

Stencil:
Memory Box 'Mini Clouds'

Dies:
Quickutz 'House'
Marianne Design/Craftables 'Tiny's Pinetrees'
Marianne Design/Craftables 'Tiny's Winter Village'

Other:
Texture Paste
Brown Twine


Challenges I'm entering...

Pixie's Crafty Snippets Challenge
(All snippets)

The Sisterhood of Crafters
(Something Old, Something New).
Although the Quickutz Die is old, it's new to my die collection...

Craft Rocket Challenges
(Challenge #7 'Clean and Simple')

Have a good weekend...

Donna. x

Snow Globe/Stag, Aperture, Female

I was fortunate enough to win a Guest spot on the Design Team at City Crafter a few weeks ago and was over the moon at the theme I was scheduled to play along with for this week.
'Into The Wood' couldn't be more perfect for me as I adore making nature themed cards.  

But the rules were very clear..  Include 'wood' somehow in the design, but NO TREE!!!

My plan from the beginning involved the Stag and Snow Globe die along with the Woodgrain embossing folders.

As for the rest...  that was more trial and error.   That's often the way it goes for me (having a partial design in mind that I then have to 'play' with).  I don't know about you!

Here's the card...

My aim (please feel free to tell me if it worked or not) was to create a pretty 'girly' card that wasn't overtly girly.  Does that make sense?  I also purposefully chose the whole 'brown' look, but still wanted to achieve a CAS 'feel' to the design.  Clean and Simple meets Layered meets Aperture...

Dies used:

Taylored Expressions 'Birch Tree Accessory Set' (Stag)

Memory Box 'Large Snow Globe'

Marianne Design Collectables 'Tab With Text'

Memory Box 'Holly Vine'

Impression Obsession 'Pine Branch'

Open Studio 'Snowglobe Bases'

Embossing Folders:

Sizzix/Texture Fades 'Woodgrain' (Background)

Crafter's Companion 'Woodgrain' (Snow Globe Base)

Cuttlebug 'Snowflakes'

Stencil:

Memory Box 'Splatter Spray'

Gluing two cards together and then adding inner panels is a favourite trick of mine for aperture cards, but it does add to the weight quite a bit...  so these cards are generally reserved for hand delivery only.

(I generally console myself with the fact that at least they are sturdy rather than flimsy)!

A bow with a bell attached and three vanilla/champagne Morning Dew Drops...  and this card was done...

...  except for this...

I cant't wait to see what you design if you decide to play along :)

Challenges I'm entering...

As you Like It

(Monochrome or Colour...  and Why?)

I like the challenge of getting a Monochrome card to 'work' for me.

House of Cards

(Add Texture and/or Colour Inspiration)

I chose to add texture.  

The Sisterhood of Crafters
(Die-lirious and Punchy)

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge

Creative Card Crew
(Challenge #98 'Ribbon')

Pixie's Crafty Snippets Challenge

My patterned paper and stag were both cut from my snippets stash.

Sunday Stamps

(SSC112)

Crafty Ribbons

(Challenge #130 'Christmas to Die for')

Cas-UAL Chic
(CCC04)

Stencilling, Die Cutting, Embossing.

Hope you are having a good week so far...
My thoughts are with those of you I know are having a rough time right now.

Tag Card/Thanks, Embossed Leaf, Female

Hello.

I did promise you that not all of my designs would be Christmas themed from now on, do you remember?

Well, true to my word I've created a Thank You 'tag' card...  and not a hint of a Christmas theme or brown ink in sight.  (I said no brown ink...  didn't say anything about brown twine or a brown 'thanks' sentiment)!!!

This 'tag' card is for the latest challenge at Tag You're It.  

If you haven't tried playing along I would encourage you to give it a try.  It's a fantastic way to use up some of those craft scraps...  and who doesn't have use for a tag?  I sure do :)

Here's my design...

I have to be honest and say that I didn't initially set out to make a 'tag' card...  but that soon changed once I settled on my choice of leaf die and realised that every single traditional tag shape I owned just didn't look right when paired with it.

No problem.  I paired it with my Spellbinders Distressed Rectangle die instead :)

Who said tags have to be 'tag' shaped, anyway?

Can you see which parts of Jeanne's tag I've taken my inspiration from?

As I have no filigree leaf I've opted for an embossed one instead and offset it against a negative 'cut out' of itself.  I've included the button, the sequins of different shapes, sizes and colours and swapped out a 'thanks' stamp for a 'thanks' die cut that has a few layers glued together for dimension.  Attached the leaf using 3D glue...  even edged my tag with blue ink to echo the colour of Jeanne's twine ;)

If you have the time, come and join us.  There's a prize on offer again this month :)

Challenges I'm entering... 

Crafty Cardmakers and More

(Make it Sparkle/Challenge #148)

Allsorts Challenge

(Sparkle/Week #148)

Pixie's Crafty Snippets Challenge

(Anything Goes/Week #195)

Leaf & Thanks made from 'snippets'

4 Crafty Chicks

(Sparkle and Shine/Challenge #265)

Have a good weekend...

Donna