Ten hours planning, one hour doing

Or, my own mental version of "measure twice, cut once." (in my case it's measure 12 times, cut one hour before it's due) Where has the week gone??? Lots to blog about but I've just been too busy to actually post! Well I will try to make up for lost time this week...

We had a going away shindig for a good friend who's moving out of state, and I was in charge of the goodbye card. Naturally I spent HOURS conceptualizing it and maybe 45 minutes actually making it. I used a free template in the shape of a tryptych which I would love to share a link to, but now I can't find it!

I searched (and searched) the Internet for the perfect graphics and quotations, and everybody sent in little things to say to our friend. I printed them out onto sheets of perforated business cards, thinking I'd do a pocket...and knowing that really wasn't going to work.

Up until the last minute I was at a total loss as to what to put on the front of the card, and how to integrate the goodbye notes. Finally, at work I spied some big pictures I keep under my clear plastic desk cover. They are inserts of Middle Eastern carpets I had pulled long ago from back issues of Architectural Digest. One of them I cut to fit and collaged onto the front of the card (splitting it down the center where the card opens like little doors) and another I made into a little envelope to put the goodbye notes into. Naturally I slathered the whole thing with gold leafing pen and it looked tres Turkish/Middle Eastern. Definitely not something you'd find at Walgreens.

So I figured our friend could prop up the card on her new mantle if she wanted...

and I was soooo proud...until she mentioned I got her name wrong, LOL! Not only that, her baby has two names and I switched them! She was very gracious about it though. Fortunately I still have the file with the Word Art names, so I'll send some corrections to her new home. With a little bottle of glue, LOL.