Project 78: See you later, Mrs G

This post is an elaborate public thanks to my friend Claire, who is moving to the US for an adventure in NYC with her husband.

She introduced me to the wonderful (and expensive) world of crafting and helped shape what was a time-consuming past time into an even more time-consuming (but occassionally financially beneficial) hobby.

I had the idea for this card ages ago and I thought that I'd dissect it now in all the ways that my crafting has changed since I started having playdates with Claire.

1) Mojo Monday layout: I never knew craft blog challenges would become such a fun weekly experiment, an opportunity to try new layouts and see how other people interpret the same brief. Awesome. Sketch is below to see my interpretation.

2) Punched scallop squares - I thought punches were funny things for children and had no idea that there was a world of punches to make crafters' lives easier. I've never looked back and now have a punch box that weighs about 20lbs.

3) Individual letter stamps - so much cuter to make your own weird and wonderful greetings. Like this one. I'm sure a "See you later, alligator" stamp must exist but it wouldn't have worked with this layout and I almost certainly wouldn't have been able to have my gator eating my greeting with a pre-made one.

4) Every color of ink - goes with the pervious point but having ink in just about every color gives you just that extra bit of flexibility. (And you can get good cheap ones in lots of colors from craft store sales - another good tip from my craft buddy.)

5) The patterned paper at the bottom is a freebie from a craft magazine - I never would have indulged in a craft magazine before but now I evaluate them for their freebies (they all have freebies) and see if I'd pay the cover price for the freebie. I've gotten stamps, papers, bling, ribbon, candies...all sorts.And then the magazine is like your freebie. Cash back.

6) The green paper that is punched is high quality stock which is never saved for best. Life's to short to save everything for best. I used to use cheap nasty paper and then save my scraps to the tiniest fraction of an inch and for what? So I could look at it longingly? No way. Good cards use good paper. End of story.

7) Paper twine is like a dream - it ties so easily, you can manipulate it as you please and it adds charm where ribbon can look twee. I wanted to emboss the yellow paper underneath to show another Claire-influence but it was too much. And that's another thing that Claire affirmed - you don't need to use every piece of craft kit on a single card! Sheesh. If I had a dime for every card that should have stopped 6 embellishments ago...well I'd be able to buy a lot more Martha craft kit. That's for sure.

8) Buttons as embellishments - I love buttons and never would have built up a collection to put on cards. Now I put them everywhere. Freakin' love buttons.

9) Glitter glue (barely visible in the center of the flowers on the bottom paper) - ok, I'm a late convert here but I thought glitter glue was for 8 year olds to decorate tshirts in Brownies or something. It really lifts a flat stamp or paper and I can't remember why I didn't start using it sooner.

10) The alligator is all mine, I hand cut that from corrugated card, cut the teeth and eye and generally spent longer on that element than anything else - as you'd imagine. But I had to put something outrageous on there for her!

I hope this post demonstrates in a small way how much I've learned from my friend and how much my craft life is going to have a Claire-shaped hole. But I'm so excited for her and know that this is just an excuse to work out the logistics of a Skype playdate. Will definitely continue to link to her blog so you can see what we create in our trans-Atlantic partnership :)