Last Commission of 2010...

...I'm still crossing my fingers as I type this that the birthday 'boy' really is called John, and is 65, because if he's not I've got a quick repair job to do!

This card (and box of course!) was requested by a lady who's seen lots of my commission cards over the last few months and wanted something special for her husband.  The main brief I was given was 'travel' which is definitely very different from anything I've done in the past, so as usual I had a bit of a panic before coming up with this design.  First the box....

which you'll notice is a perfect match for the card itself...

Once again the card is 8 inches square, and all the images were sourced from the internet.  Thank goodness for Photoshop as I couldn't find a map background that I liked.  This one started out larger and multicoloured so I cropped it and converted to a sepia tone so the landmark photos would stand out more.  If I'd been better prepared I would probably have asked about destinations that were significant to John, but as it was I just chose some iconic, easily recognisable images. I've since heard that Egypt, the USA and possibly Italy do feature in the couple's travel plans, so I hope John likes it!  I'm also hoping he's not a big stamp-collector as he might notice that the postcard says its from Hawaii but the stamp is Belgian (Photoshop strikes again, lol!)....All that aside I'm really pleased with the way this has turned out :-)

Mirror, mirror on the wall...

another of those projects that evolved as I went along. I had the basic idea for a decorated mirror in my head but originally was going to do a faux-mosaic look with pink papers. After fiddling about for a while trying to work out the best size for the squares and the spacing I considered covering the whole of the front of the frame with the paper.  Eventually I came up with this design...

The dangly ribbons are to clip hair-slides etc on to keep them tidy.  I've seen lots of similar things in blogland but liked the idea of using them with a mirror.  The flowers at the ends of the ribbons are cut from fleece using the same Hello Kitty Sizzix flower die as I've used for those on the mirror.  I've weighted them with pennies to help them hang properly.  The lettering was cut with my Craft Robo Lite and the paper is a Pink Petticoat download.  

The mirror incidentally was bought from Ikea over 10 years ago and never used (it was pine but I've painted lightly with white acrylic), and I've just checked the website and they still sell them!  Think I'll pick up a few more next time I go...

Reindeer? No I think its snow....

I started a tradition several Christmases ago of making an ornament for my friend Catherine as part of her Christmas card.  Unfortunately I don't think I have photos of any of the previous creations but they range from a classy cross stitched mini stocking (which is the one that started it all) to an extremely tacky felt Christmas tree caked in sequins.

This year I've aimed for a more classy feel, and gone with felt again. I found this fab t-shirt tutorial with a reindeer motif.  I was just going to use ordinary synthetic craft felt but my local craft shop didn't have any browns in and I've been stuck at home with the snow.  I was just about to give it up as a bad job when I remembered I had a brown felted jumper lying around somewhere, and voila, everything fell into place...

I love the texture of the felt (the jumper was ribbed).  The antlers were also a 'make-do' that has worked out very well - they're made of 2 pieces of papermania self-adhesive flock-type stuff stuck back to back . My original plan was to use a glittery pom-pom for his nose but good taste won the day and I decided to needle-felt his nose on to this one. A couple of buttons, a jingle bell and a bit of running stitch and I love the result.  I think I'll have to make one of these for my own tree, maybe mine will have the glittery nose ;-)