Stationary

 Scrap bookers and card makers look away now. This will not meet with your standards. I've seen some amazing creations done with inks and stamps and goodness knows what else, and I can't hope to reach those dizzy heights.

However I have been up to some cutty choppy printy stuff lately.

I rashly offered to make some wedding invitations for one of my former pupils.

I'm already booked to do her flowers and she wants only Gypsophila tied with string for a bouquet, and on the tables at the reception she wants flowers in jam jars decorated with scrim and string, which I think I can manage.

 So when she sent some ideas for invitations I think I knew what she would like.

My initial thoughts were to cut a stamp of a perching bird but my rubber carving skills were such that the legs caused me a terrible problem.

So I got out my tablet and opened photoshop. Think monkey and typewriter with me and photoshop...and then the wretched Macbook wouldn't speak to the tablet so I couldn't draw a bird even if I'd wanted to, so back to the drawing board..literally.

If a bird is flying you can't see its legs so here's what I carved.

I'd ordered some super duper 'Hairy Manilla' recycled card and envelopes and it came very quickly and printed up beautifully.

Not being accustomed to working in mixed media lately the only paint I could find  was a box of watercolour tubes. Within this box only about three of them were still moist so I mixed two of them , cobalt blue and alizarin crimson, with a roller..er sorry..a brayer.... and got a nice purply brown.

The paper just sucked it up.

Perfect.

I cut out the birds, and printed the names on the card. (I've scribbled on them to keep them anonymous)

I liked the bird being a sort of closure on the card.

 So I stuck it on half off!

For the other side I printed a sheet with the words 'wedding invitation' and cut out hearts

 I quite like them and I love the VT Remington font ( but I think it caused word to crash)

Inside I stuck printed sheets with the details of the wedding on cream paper in the same font.

 I did a few extra in case of mistakes and here they all are, ready for delivery at church in the morning.

 Sadly I think I've worked for about 10p per hour. 

But I enjoyed it.

(I also did a spare sheet of bird prints in case I found another use for them.

 They are the ones in the fourth photo . That was my mistake ..I took a photo and then left them at low level and Hetty ate them.)

 I found the cards fit exactly into and old Nokia phone box. I turned it inside out so thats another recycled bit. Don't you just love it when that happens?

UPDATE: She loves them!