Thirsday - Techniques and Tips

My blog is likely to die from lack of use right now.  Life has definitely got in the way just lately, but I have still been crafting.  These are two cards I did for a friend's 50th wedding anniversary, quite a special day.  We spent 7 years at school together, and although going to university and college meant we did not see each other as frequently, we never totally lost contact.  Over the last 15 years or so, we have made determined efforts to meet at least once a year, taking it in turn to host the get together.  This was an extra meeting.  Sadly the two who live down in Dorset could not manage to get there, so I was charged with getting the present from us all and delivering it, which is why there are two cards.

This is the card from me, which owes a great deal to Maria Moorhouse and her workshop at Evesham.  Sitting working at this design, I realised that is had a lot of lovely hearts on it - perfect for an anniversary card.  All I had to do was to finish it and add their initials in the centre from one of the Plate Mates - job done.

 Well nearly done anyway.  This second picture was from the main part of the insert.  The main part of this was done on the coloured Clarity designer parchment.  I cannot remember which design as it ended up being whatever I had close at hand, being rather short of time by then.  I used the lovely Jayne Nestorenko frame and the centre panel had the writing from the same Plate Mate as the centre of the front panel.  All the gridwork  and edge picot was done with the fine grid, which you may already have gathered is my favourite way of doing it.  

 These two cards took a lot of the designer paper, but for  such a special occasion, it was worth while.

The third piece was used as the other insert piece for me to write on.

The second card was one I had already basically done and just had to add the insert pieces.  By now I was running out of time so there was no time to start from scratch.  This was to hold the gardening vouchers we had bought for their gift.  Some of you will know that this is based on one of Tina Cox's lovely embroidery plates.  I added a corner of embroidery to match on the card itself.  The "messy " bit inside was hidden by one of the insert pieces of designer paper.

 

The insert for this card was slightly problematic as I could not find a piece of designer paper to match the front.  The nearest I could find was a little on the blue side, so I took a dark green Faber Castell polychromos pencil and coloured the back of the paper until it looked more green.

I know that the amount of work in these cards will be appreciated and it is a special occasion  The party was lovely and we were able to sit outside and enjoy the sunny weather, while looking over the stunning scenery to the Wrekin.