Peek Of The Week Number Four

If it’s Sunday it must be ‘Peek Of The Week’ day!  Hello and welcome to Peek Of The Week Number Four – and thanks very much for taking the time out to read this.

I don’t know about you, but personally one of the joys of making cards is the anticipation, imagining how the recipient will feel when it’s delivered and they open the envelope. Everything these days is geared up for speed and convenience because we all lead such busy lives, and greetings cards are no exception.  Anyone can pop into a shop, put some coins on the counter, and walk out with a mass produced bland card that they can send to their loved one. There are online companies that exist that will make the card and even post it for you!

While all this is very convenient, handy, useful, call it what you will, it’s also very impersonal. No greetings card demonstrates love and affection more than a card you have spent time and great care making yourself, and that’s why shop-bought and internet-ordered cards will never compete with handmade ones, even those we make that have imperfections and wobbly bits. In a World of uniformity and mass production we should love our imperfections and wobbly bits!

The card I want to share with you this Sunday has a very special place in my heart because it was made for a very special lady – my Mum. It was her birthday yesterday. I find I’m very busy these days (not that I’m complaining – I love my job!) and I don’t have much, if any, spare time in which to make many cards for my own use – but there are occasions when we just have to find the time, and my Mum’s birthday definitely fitted the bill.  Mum moved to France a few years ago, I miss her very much and I wanted to make a card that would hopefully show her how much I love her.  And this is the result.

After cutting an aperture into a card blank I cut the Botanical Bouquet, butterfly frame into a piece of pink mirri card. I put a purple frame on top of this using foam tape for added dimension. By keeping to just three basic colours and making the butterflies in those same colours I’d hoped to tie everything in and keep everything co-ordinated and understated, and I feel I’ve succeeded in doing that.  

The sentiment was printed on to acetate and then stuck between the card base and mirri layer. After cutting out a few additional butterflies and dotting them around, the card was finished. I’m really chuffed with the results but far more importantly I had a phone call from France that told me my Mum was really pleased with it – and I hope you like it too.  

Now it’s your turn!  Please please (pretty please!) take time out to photograph your makes and put them on my Facebook page.  Don’t be shy, no one will judge you and I love to see what’s being created out there!