Handicrafts by Kate Perry and other ramblings

Monday, September 30, 2013

I made the deadline for a Wedding card.

I am used to only making cards for family and friends, but this week I was commissioned to make one that I really wanted to do. But fresh back from my holiday, and with my son here for a visit, I didn't have much time.
We have two young Romanian couples who attend our church regularly. They speak their own language at home and are fluent in Spanish, but although they understand quite a bit, they are only just beginning to speak English. Earlier this year they were all baptised in the sea, along with others from our group, and although they were married in Romania some years ago, they decided that they wanted to be married again in church "In front of God and our new family here".  They are a part of a rather marginalised group of hard working folk who slave in the heat of the plastic greenhouses (where the salad on your supermarket shelves is grown) for very low wages, so we wanted to give them a special day. So we each did our best. Some made beautiful flower displays, others collected rose petals to spread on the path, organised champagne and glasses, found a last minute wedding cake etc and we all contributed to a 'bring and share' lunch. I was asked to make a card that everyone could sign, and as I knew there would be around sixty signatures and messages, I knew it would have to be a big one!
In the end it was more or less A4 size with a triple page insert. The colour was determined by the colour of the large sheets of card available, and as the only pastel shade was pink, that's what I used.
For the next layer I used heavy white paper cut around with a Martha Stewart 'round the page' punch (eyelet lace I think), and passed through my e-bosser with an A4 lattice folder.
The swans were a cutting file from a Tina Fitch CD that I bought for a family wedding card next year, so this was a good opportunity to practice with it. I cut them from stiff pearl paper and painted white glitter-glue on the feathers.


The church window was another file from my silhouette cameo library which I believe was free from Monica Bjork. I cut it from the same pearl paper as the swans and backed it with two layers of fusion film. 
I glued two strips if pale pink ribbon across the lower section and covered the join with some pearl trimming that I bought in UK last week.
The sentiment was computer generated and cut, along with its surround, using Spellbinders Radiant Rectangles, Majestic Elements dies.

For the flower spray I cut two of Joanna Sheen's Signature die Ivy flourishes, and one rose swirl from the Heartfelt Creations Bella Rose set. The larger flowers were made from scratch using ordinary copy paper and hand cut flower shapes, with a gem brad at their centre, and the smaller ones were deconstructed and reconstructed silk flowers.

At first I thought it was all a bit over the top, but knowing the couple, I just knew it was a style they would love. We all managed to sign it before the couple arrived, and I think I can safely say we gave them a day they will remember for a very long time.
When it was time to repeat their vows, the bridegroom spoke in halting English, and the bride in Spanish, and then their friend did a reading in Romanian, so it was quite an international affair!
The smallest girl is their daughter, and the older one is the daughter of their friends. Florentina's new baby is due just before Christmas, so soon we will celebrating with them again.


Wednesday, September 25, 2013

A quick 'bobbin' robin for Rudolf Day.

With me spending a couple of weeks out of circulation this month, Rudolph Day seems to have come round even faster than usual. But here we are at the 25th again, and Sarn is reminding us that it is time to link another Christmas card to her blog, Stamping for Pleasure.
As I have been commissioned to make a large wedding card for Sunday, and I also need a Ruby wedding Anniversary card for the same day, I knew I would have to keep it simple for my Christmas card. So I used one of a sheet of robin toppers that I bought while in UK, and a sheet of robin paper from a lovely Papermania pack that I bought at the same time. Rather than using the frame that came with the topper, I hand cut one from green card, and also used a strip of the same card below the image. To this I glued a piece of snowflake paper lace that I had coated with white glitter. I used memento olive grove ink to distress the edge of the base card, and to stamp a simple sentiment. A little of the same glitter on the image completed the card.
This was a quick and easy card to make and there were ten toppers on the sheet, so hopefully next week I will be able to make a set of them. For now though, I will just link this up and have a quick look at what everyone else has made.
Well it is now Thursday evening. I did post this yesterday, but as my dear sister has just pointed out to me, it really does help if you remember to link it up to the challenge when you have done it! (She put it much nicer than that!). So it is now done! Better late than never. I think I need an early night.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

WOYWW 225

Well, if it is really week 225, I must have been missing for quite a while, but as I arrived home safely last Thursday night I thought I would get back in the swing with a short post here. It will be a quickie as I have another deadline to meet, with a Christmas card needed for Rudolph day tomorrow, as well as a Ruby Wedding anniversary card and a Wedding card both needed for Sunday.
So for this week I thought I would just show you all the lovely bits of stash that I bought during my trip to UK. I finally managed to finish unpacking last night so I spread everything on my desk. As it is my birthday coming up very soon I asked Chris if he would put a 'little extra' in my bank account which he kindly did, so it would have been rude not to spend it, wouldn't it?!

So here is my desk:

 And in case you can't make it all out, there are some stamps ...

... a few dies and embossing folders ....

... my favourite magazine, some lovely papers and a sheet of robin toppers ..
...and a wonderful assortment of gilding wax, gorgeous Pebéo Prisme paints, dazzlers, charms, a cutting knife and some weeding tools, beautiful lace ribbon and other trimmings, tiny pearls, a silicone mould for making buttons, and some Sparkle medium, as well as other odds and ends. These are all the things I can't buy online as they don't justify the high postage, so it is good to stock up when I can.
So my birthday has come early and I am going to have lots of fun playing with all this. I am also, unfortunately, going to have to find a home for it all, and that will be a lot more difficult.
I already have a couple of cards to show that I made to take away with me, and now three more to make so I should be back before long. In the meantime, follow me over to Julia's blog and join in with the big desk-hop. It's lots of fun. 
My son arrived  (at 2 o'clock this morning(!), and he is staying for two weeks, but I shall try to find time to visit as many of you as I can over the next few days.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Kirigami and more

I've been rushing around today getting ready for our flight to UK tomorrow, so I have only just sat down at my computer and realised that I have missed WOYWW again. I shall now be missing for two and a bit weeks, so I thought I'd do a quick post on one of my cards instead. This is the one I started a few weeks ago for my grandson. His birthday is actually on 9/11. but he is too young to be looking at my blog. There are far more exciting things to be doing when you are seven! I shall see him at the big family party on Friday but I will leave his card with his dad for the right day.

This was my second attempt at kirigami (the Japanese art of paper folding and cutting), and this time I was using a pattern for a triceratops. It proved to be much harder to put together than the lions I had done previously, and it was not very willing to stay together. So in the end I broke the rules of kirigami and added a few dots of glue to some of the tabs, to make it strong enough to be handled by a little fellow! Anyway, this is what he looks like.


This done, I turned my attention to the card front. I wanted to use more cheerful colours this time so I printed out a DoodlePantry digi stamp of a 'cartoon' triceratops, and coloured it with my copics. I then used adobe photoshop to design the layout using a digi paper pack called Cupcake birthday from Stitchy bear, a digi frame from Jessica's Art, and a sentiment from the same set as the dinosaur. I added the Birthday script and saved it all as a jpg. Then in Publisher I sized it to fit the front of my card and printed it out. I cut out the centre of the frame and cut my coloured image to fit behind it. Then it was mounted onto the white base card which I had distressed a little with a Spiced marmalade ink pad. A shiny number seven peel-off finished it off.
That's it then. Time to pack a case!