Saturday, November 26, 2011

Season's Greetings

Today I'll be sharing 18 cards with you. 18 of the same cards, that is. ;) This is my third official corporate commission and I seem to be adding one every year. At this rate, I may not be able to keep up! LOL This project has been about six weeks in the making. First, I had to dream up a design that incorporated the essence of the company as well as their corporate colours. Then I had to order the stamps, estimate all the measurements and get the logo die cut. That's where having an incredible bloggy friend like Meg came in handy. I got to use her Silhouette from 1600 kilometres (or 1000 miles) away!

At first the company requested a dozen cards so I ordered 16 of their logo. I even asked Meg to make a few extras but the company added six more cards to their order which left me with two short. I contacted Meg again and she knew what to do. She sent me plenty of extras just in case. Let me just say that it would've been faster to drive to Alabama and back but thankfully we had plenty of time! Meg, you're the best. :)

Once all the logos were in my possession, I went to work. I completed these in stages, sometimes with several days in between each stage. Just stamping the Formula Fun math background 18 times was a lot of work and my fingers and forearms were sore afterwards! The rest of it wasn't so bad, 'til I got to the rounding of the corners. Can you imagine punching out 72 corners? I must've been out of my mind to do it all in one go. The absolute worst part? Adhering those die cuts! LOL I won an Xyron last year and haven't used it much because it leaves globs and webs of glue in the little spaces and I have to use an X-acto knife to clear out every single space. Is it me or does anyone else have that problem? After adhering the first one, I walked away and dreaded completing this project. Eventually, when I felt like I had more patience, I went to work and completed all 18 cards. I don't think the company knew exactly what they were ordering but I heard they were impressed. They're already talking about next year's order so I guess that's good, right? ;)

I hope you're all having a splendid weekend!

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury Soft Sand, Black Onyx & white cardstock; SU Tangerine Tango cardstock; Hero Arts Formula Fun; Papertrey Ink Stylish Sentiments: Holiday; Tim Holtz for Ranger Pumice Stone distress ink; Memories Black ink; We R Memory Keepers corner chomper; The Twinery Mandarin baker's twine

35 comments:

Jay Gee said...

Wow, lots of work Emily, but they do look absolutely amazing :)

Vicky Hayes said...

Another satisfied customer I'm sure - they look fantastic Emily!

Annette Allen said...

Well they are fabulous... I bet they love them...great job.

Kate said...

These are just fab and well done you on the commission.
Kate xx

Joy said...

WOW! congrats on the gig Emily, you did an amazing job and I love the design of this card...isn't this crafting industry fab, such wonderful people that are willing to help us out in our time of need.

As for the Xyron, I have the same issue but saw one of Julie Ebersole's videos and she runs it through then uses a stylus to go around the image at the back which seems to get rid of all that webbing..hope that helps..

hugs

Isha Gupta said...

Wonderful card Emily. I am sure your clients must be happy.

Jen M said...

I think they turned out great! :)

Lisa said...

So slick, emily! They had to have loved these very unique cards! They were definitely worth the trouble :)

Karen B. said...

Absolutely amazing, I only wish I could be in the same predicament as you!

~amy~ said...

awesome work!!!!! Good for you!

Erin (Homemade Cards by Erin) said...

Wow, duly impressed!

Creations by Shirl said...

Congrats Emily~
Well organized on those cards, I'm sure they were delighted to receive what you created...
Awesome!

Glenda J said...

Fabulous design! Great colours and layout.

Jennifer Rzasa said...

These are so cool!

Anonymous said...

you are seriously AMAZING! I have that background stamp and haven't used it. LOVE that it fits with the company's mission. It looks out of this world awesome.

Emily (stampingout on SCS) said...

AWESOME cards, Em! I bet that company just loved them. That Meg is such a sweetie! Thanks for sharing these with us. They look incredible! :)

Vee said...

Great cards Emily - well done.
Vee xx

Savannah O'Gwynn said...

FABBBBBY! I love the colors and I LOVE your large sentiment--PERFECT! And I LOVE that you made so many!!! Makes me want to get started on my Christmas cards!!! <3 <3 <3

scrapsnsuch@gmail.com said...

Impressive!!! From finding the stamps to a simple yet classy LO - all good!

Sue McRae said...

Love this unique design!

A tip for preventing the gummy edges when using the Xyron is to adhere the adhesive to the paper first and then cut your shape with whatever you are using, a punch, Cuttlebug, Silhouette. This works like a charm!

I know in your case this wasn't necessarily possible as someone else was doing the cutting for you :)

Karen said...

Wonderful cards, very professional looking. I have a tool I use to remove any stick tapes or glues on my cards. It is made by Xyron and is a 2 inch Adhesive Eraser. It is really a piece of nubby rubber that removes all sticky stuff very quickly. You can order from Amazon. They may have them elsewhere too. I have had this eraser for years and can't live without it. Hope it helps.

littlebitoftoto said...

Very pretty cards, nice job. I too use my xyron and also use the rubber eraser...you can get them at many craft stores...they work great. and now I don't mind using the xyron!

Vicki Dutcher said...

Kudos to you for picking up a Corporate Christmas card account! That is awesome -- your cards are fabulous!! Very personal yet "corporate" - well done!

Jenny said...

These look fantastic Emily, so good Meg could help you out :)
Jenny x

Anita Rex said...

Wow Emily this is amazing! Fantastic design! What a job that you beyond excelled at! :> For adhering the logo I would have either used two way glue pen (that blue one) or a tombo one with the small tip. :>

Unknown said...

these are fabulous! love the graphic cas quality of the design. my fave part is how the rounded edge of your sentiment strip flows off the edge. the small details make the deisgn...these are great cards! congrats on the commissions :)

Jen W. said...

Awesome! Love seeing your corporate cards - they're always so fabulous!

Jessi Fogan said...

Definitely good that they're already talking about next year! And yep, Meg is awesome like that :) So cool that you manage to tip your hat to their business, while making it fun & festive all at the same time. You know you rock, right? Well, you do :)

Meg said...

Yeah! So glad that everything got there and you were able to make such fabulous cards! Love how perfect they turned out!

As for adhering, I'd go with Joy's suggestion of using a stylus, but really AnitaRex's suggestion of a glue pen would be the best way.

Lindsey said...

These are fabulous, Em! What a brilliant design. Really, could there be a better purpose for this HA background stamp? (Well, Meg's used it perfectly, too.) :) I would imagine it took some brute strength to get 18 of those backgrounds stamped perfectly. Glad you got lots of Xyron advice!

Karin said...

These are so striking in design, color and packaging too! I can see why they will be back next year!

Angela said...

Yay for cool nerd cards! Love Meg's die cuts paired with the mathiness paired with the twine. Perfect. Hope your muscles have recovered.

Lucy Abrams said...

Wow - what a fab collection. They must have been thrilled.

Brenda said...

Wow! You are one brave girl tackling a project like this! I am now truly in awe! This is an awesome design Emily!

Petti said...

This set is gorgeous!!!