'Enjoy the Journey' Card

Hello Hello

Today I thought that I'd share this rather remarkable card that I created last year for a good friend of mine. A co-worker actually who decided to broaden her horizons and move on. Being that I, along with a very long list of others, had worked with her for many years I thought she deserved an extra special kind of card.

The way that this even came about is that another co-worker, a dear friend to both of us who also knows my creative side first hand, request that I be the one to 'make' a card instead of someone just buying a card at the store. Of course I immediately agreed and set to the challenge.

My first obstacle was to figure out the size it would need to be (due to the number of co-workers-I'd have to go BIG) and then how I was going to preserve the message inside without people writing all over it, because that's important too right? Next was what the message was going to be, I haven't done many of these types of cards so admittedly I was at a bit of a loss...finally I had to figure out where exactly people were going to sign it since I'd decided they were not going to be allowed to write over the message...lol

...humm...

This is what I came up with to solve all of my issues; first I made it fairly large -go big or go home- for the message inside, once I had it written, I printed it off on white card stock, cut it out, adhered it to my pattern paper, then I used a plastic sheet of paper over the entire page and sewed it shut - to get it in the card I used some twine and threaded that through the spine and tied a knot on the front side of the card; as for the signature pages well...that's just what I created - pages...this card is actually more of a mini booklet.

The first two and last two pages are blank so that there was plenty of room for everyone to jot in their well wishes and then sign their name...funny thing is...I forgot to include my own...oops!

Hopefully Tara will forgive me and know that I love her and wish her the best always. Besides after looking for forever for something to write that I felt expressed what we were all feeling and coming up completely empty handed, I ended up writing my own message to her and it pretty much says everything for me, only better because it's all in a cute little poem.

It’s been fun

it’s been grand

working with you

hand in hand

through many years

and quite possibly just as many tears

this is hard

on all of us here.

But all good things

must come to an end

so

to our colleague,

our mentor,

our friend,

we bid you

adieu..

For the time has come

to send you off

but it’s with heavy hearts

and a feeling of loss.

Truth be told…

we’d rather you didn’t go.

(just so you know this totally blows)

But as the wind

wild it goes

running ahead wherever it roams

we wish you happy trails

for whatever the future holds

and greener pastures

where you can grow.

                                Bethany Smith

                                              2014

As for the cover I did a few paper layers and several small pieces before adding on the wood frame which houses the main sentiment, on the bottom right hand corner I also added a simple stamped phrase and included a few more wood pieces to the left of it to tie the whole thing together. 
I fancy the way it looks

When it came time to put it in an envelope I almost had a panic attack because it wouldn't fit in anything I had. What to do...what to do? Well I used my envelope punch board by We R Memory Keepers this here and made my very own, love this punch board by-the-way. 
As for sealing it... I was afraid with so many people pulling it out or stuffing it back in the envelope it would either A -ruin the envelope or B -tear up my card so I thought of something better. 

Instead of finishing the envelope the correct way I left all 4 sides open, I did score all four flaps as normal then I folded each flap around the card kinda like you'd fold down the sides of a box, on the last folded flap I added a Velcro dot to hold it shut. Worked like a dream - easy to open and close - without either piece getting torn up, definitely a win

Hope you've enjoyed this little walk through, feel free to ask me any questions you have about this card or anything else you're wondering, I'll be glad to hear from you and I'll look forward to sharing more with you soon. 

Thank you so much!

just B