Leaving card - Friday 7th September

Good Morning blog friends!

Thank you so much for stopping by and leaving comments, I read them all and if you ask a question, I do try to answer! Today is the first day of two weeks off, though I don't normally work Friday's anyway and Tom is still at work, so does that count? :)

On Wednesday, my friend Kim and I went to the leaving party of a lady who has been our funding officer at the Council for a good number of years, in fact Usha, started early 1997 and I began my job with the community organisation at the end of '96! Usha has been a great support to both our charities (we both work for Volunteer Centres) and has also  been good friend, but with the changes now facing the Councils, she decided it was time to go and has taken early retirement. I have to say that she looked so happy at having made the decision too!

Reflecting over the years I have known Usha, I have such a memory of a really happy day when she and I went to London to a conference. Usha drove us up and the conference finished after lunch; it was a lovely summer day and deciding it was too early to go home, Usha took me to 'Little India'. The most amazing street I have seen in this Country, lined with shops selling the most exotic fruit and veg (of which I brought quite a lot back!) and the most beautiful and expensive saris, such lovely rich colours. It was a real treat for the senses.Then she took me for afternoon tea and the most delicious Indian sweet biscuits at her friend's house close by...I will always have such fond memories of that day.

Kim asked if I would make a card from both of us and of course I was more than happy to do this!

 As Usha is Indian, I wanted to give the card Asian tones and accents, so to start with this 8x8 card, I took some purple card and spritzed through a That Special Touch mask with Cosmic Shimmer sprays in Eqyptian Blue and Marigold. You can't see the shimmery effect in the photo, but it does give a lush finish!

From the dies I own, I used Venetian Motifs and Accents (Spellbinders). Venice has such a multi-cultural history that I look at the architecture when we visit and see so many different cultures represented and I see that in these dies too. 

I bordered the entire card in a lighter shade and then cut three layers of the Venetian motifs die for the centre: one in the dark purple, one in the lighter shade and one from the left over wax paper that I use with this die as it's so intricate. The best I have found is available from the 'Kitchens' chain of stores, it's just like the American wax paper, very soft in texture but with the look of vellum. I typed the sentiment and cut out the inner circle from the same die, shading the edges with Milled Lavender.

I used the flourishes from Venetian Motifs as well and then I used the Spellbinders Anemone die for the flower, again layered in the different shades. The flower is mounted over a bow tied with three different shades and types of purple ribbon and finished off with a dazzler.

Before I finish I just wanted to share a photo of the matching gift bag I made for the gift card we got her...

I made it with the Romantic Rectangles die cut twice - this is a really handy die for this type of gift bag, or a tag or even a card blank. I used the same dies, except for the tag, which is from the Antique Frame set...excuse that I covered it to photograph it,  actually looking back, I have no idea why!

Thanks so much for stopping and leaving a comment! Happy Friday all X

Carole Z X

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