Saturday 5 March 2011

The Real Thing ....

... and no longer a prototype.  It'e taken me almost the five weeks since the last post to (a) change my mind about the prototype and (b) make the 100 new design Save The Date cards for No. 1 daughter's wedding in June 2012 (I've said it many times since Christmas, when she got engaged, and will say it, no doubt, many times again - it's 18 months away - lol). 
Moving on - I decided that the prototype was just not good enough.  So in the midst of having a bit of a hissy fit about it all (you know how it goes - a bit of slamming around, shouting at the walls, saying why on earth did I say I would do this ...) my eyes fell on a set of stamps from Inkadinkadoo - Gem Stone Flourishes - which, I'm ashamed to say, I don't even remember buying.  End result - a Light Bulb moment.  So, hissy fit over, off I went and here they are (well two of them anyway) ....
Each card was stamped and embossed (thank God for Sue's pressie of a Tidy Tray - thank you Sue x), coloured in with Pitt Pens - May Green and a nameless Pink - and then each coloured area was 'squiggled over' with a clear glitter glaze pen.  Labour of love - you will never know - lol. Here's a close up ...
James (the groom to be) said about a third of the way through the exercise  (thinking he's being  helpful) -  'you haven't left much room for manufacturing defects' and blow me down what happened - three cards on trot not stamped nicely.  So a day off to visit the Glitter Pot (again) for more card blanks and more Bazill card - just in case - lol.
The little mounted piccies from the prototype had to be used, so they were put on the inside (couldn't waste them could I?) plus the Save the Date plaques. (I had a bit of a count up - 100 cards = 400 Nestie die shapes cut = 2400 to and fro movements on the Wizard machine.  Just a piece of useless information - lol ...)
Next stage - the actual information about saving the date for what.  I already knew wehat I was going to do for this so there I am - sat happily printing off sheets  with suitable text from the computer, then I toddled off  downstairs to the kitchen (which had become the die cutting area) to cut frames on my rather wonderful Sizzix Eclipse machine - here's some of them ....
Then WHAM - it occurred to me - how on earth do I fit the text blocks under the frames and cut them. - if you see what I mean.  Bring on another hissy fit (major one this time) - lol.  So there I am -  armed with very narrow double sided tape, positioning said frames over said  text.  It took absolutely for ever to do ....
What I did next would make you cringe ...  I brought the whole lot upstairs again, settled myself in my comfy chair, shut my eyes (well not really - just tyring to re-create the atmosphere) and started cutting as near to the double sided tape and within the frame, so's you wouldn't see the white card.  You do NOT want to see the backs of these - trust me - lol.
So here's the inside ...
By the way, contrary to the advice of Mrs Watchful Eye, I did not tie bows.  I tried and tried  - honest  I did but it just wasn't going to work - not in a million - so knots were the order of the day (and even that was hard enough - lol)
So there you have it - just the invitations etc. etc. etc. to go.  One last thing, when I'm playing, I'm really quite messy - except for a couple of things, which you could even say I'm quite anal about - lol .... One thing is the backing of all those strips of double sided tape.  I have a pot (used to hold cotton buds) which I put it all in, squish down, put some more in etc. until there's no more room and then I tip the whole lot in my waste bag (quite satisfying really - lol) ....
Then from the die cutting station in the kitchen, all the scraps of card I put in a box so it would go straight in the recycling.  This is the second box, which used to hold 15 Cadbury's Mini Rolls (long gone - lol).  The first was a Pledge Fluffy Duster Refill box ...
 Another piece of useless information - lol ...

2 comments:

Gail Is This Mutton? said...

A real labour of love Sue, such a lot of work! But worth it. They look gorgeous.

Barbra Otten said...

That's a cool look!