A Happy Project

I occasionally do commissions and I enjoy them because I'm able to tailor the project to specifications given to me by the buyer.  Plus, it's often for a happy occasion, such as a birthday or Christmas.  

Twice in 2014 I have been honored to do cards for gay weddings, both commissioned by the same person, Stacie.  First it was a card for friends, and most recently a card for her niece and her partner who got married last weekend here in Rhode Island.

The first time I did a card for Stacie, I finished 7 cards.  I then had her choose her favorite, as well as a personalized caption, which included the couple's names.  I listed the remainder in my shop, and these are a couple of them.  You can check out the listings by clicking on the caption.

Card #1

Card #2

The couple loved the card and had it framed professionally.  I know several other recipients of my cards who have done the same, and it's a huge compliment.

In August, Stacie mentioned that she had another wedding coming up -- would I mind doing another card?  Absolutely!

This time around, I gave Stacie a larger role in the process.  I made 10 different card fronts, 5 silver and 5 gold, and had her choose which one she wanted.  Unfortunately, I didn't scan the fronts for you to look at.  You'll see the final result momentarily.  I then told her that I would pull together a bunch of female couple images and get them to her to choose from.  

Some of her choices included:  

It took Stacie a while to choose the couple she wanted.  In the meantime I was deciding upon additional ornamentation, and was thinking about turning the remaining card fronts into romance/wedding/anniversary cards - which I haven't finished doing, and may not for a while.   I also gave her a list of possible captions, using her niece and partner's names or not.

Non-sequitur:  I have to say that I'm very thankful that Etsy exists as a source for finding things to use in my work.  Ebay used to be my go-to source but it's so difficult to find things there these days.  Etsy has loads of sellers with the types of items I need, ranging from images to ribbon to papers, although I also source my materials from quite a number of companies, ranging from local fabric, art, and craft stores to large companies like Home-Sew.  Some of my favorite paper companies are no longer in business, alas, so I've had to scurry around looking for new suppliers.  As it turned out, none of the items I bought from Etsians were used on the card, but I had a ball looking for things and I have several items (bows, ribbons, paper etc) I can use for future projects.

In any case, Stacie finally chose a couple and a caption, and I finished the card.  Exit a happy customer with this card:

I saw Stacie last week, and she said while she hasn't heard from her niece about the card, it was admired by everyone who saw it - and hopefully some of those folks will wander over to the shop.

For what it's worth, the items used in making the card are as follows:

• gold metallic cardstock purchased at the Rhode Island School of Design store
• gold and ivory figured paper also purchased at the RISD store
• white tulle flower purchased in a small quantity from Home-sew
• gold foil (German/Dresden Scrap) embellishments from collagestuff.com
• female couple image from one of Dover Publications'  many fashion collections - I cannot remember which one, unfortunately, but their books are invaluable to me

I hope you've enjoyed this glimpse into the fun world of commissioned work.

later,
lin