Sunday, July 27, 2014

My First Commission

My crafting is my hobby, and apart from making a few items for the Christmas charity stall etc, I have no desire to sell my 'makes', or fulfil orders for anyone. However, my youngest son's partner has just celebrated a significant birthday, and when Ben asked me if I could make 'one of your vinyl thingys' for him to give to Dave, of course I said I would. And I really enjoyed doing it too. I was given a list of his favourites - colour, quote, song, poem, book etc, and I chose to  work with the colour and the poem because I liked it so much.
I read it through a couple of times and picked out the images that came to me; a winding path with a small boy walking on it, trees with swirling falling leaves, and a dandelion head with the seeds blowing away.

I chose a blue background from a digi-scrapbook kit, and searched in google images for other ideas. Eventually I settled on these two.

I made the background layer the right proportions to match the plain black frame I had bought, and in adobe photoshop I changed the hue of the road to blend with the background, faded it out and stretched it to fit. Then I digitally cut the little boy and added him as a layer onto the road, again changing the hue to blue, and making him a suitable size. His trousers stood out as still having a brown tint so I then cut them out separately and turned them a true blue and added them over the brown ones. For the leaves and seed head I used elements from several digi scrapbook kits, trying to get them all to similar tones of blue. I faded each of them so no one stood out from the others, and then I flattened it all into a jpeg image, and used Publisher to size it to fit the frame exactly, and printed it out.

I printed out the poem in several different fonts and sent them to Ben to chose, and once he had decided, I printed it in my Silhouette cameo software, fiddling around with size and spacing until it was just right, and then I cut it from Black vinyl. I knew if I used a sheet of transfer paper to lift it in one go, I would risk sticking to and tearing the printed background, so I did a few lines at a time. The spacing isn't perfect, but Ben didn't want me to do it again, and said he couldn't see what I was worrying about! Considering how small the print was, it cut really well, though of course it was fun weeding out all the tiny centres of the 'closed' letters. I only had to re-cut a couple of letters, and eight dots for the 'i's'!
So here is the finished project.
I have tried to add this as a large photo so you can read the words which I find quite moving, especially the last few lines. He wrote it when his young son first went away to boarding school. (The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that a letter is missing in the last verse. Fortunately I spotted this and was able to put it right).
Also fortunately, my husband made an unexpected visit to UK last month, and was able to take this with him and hand-deliver it. I promised I would not put it on my blog until it had been given. The birthday has now passed and I am told he was thrilled with it, and of course, it is quite unique, which it makes it a special gift.  
So that is my first commission done and dusted. I'm not looking to do any more but I'm always happy to do something for one of my boys!

11 comments:

  1. It's beautiful Kate. Well done you. So unique and so special.
    Hugs,
    Annie x

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  2. A super project Kate, I love the poem.
    Jean x

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  3. I am so amazed at this! What a wonderful gift and keepsake!

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  4. Kate you leave me gob-smacked with your computer abilities - this is amazing - and the poem likewise.
    Blessings
    Maxine

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  5. beautiful Kate - am really in awe of your computer skills!

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  6. Kate, this is absolutely wonderful! It's a beautiful poem, and you've illustrated it perfectly. Like Maxine, I'm in awe of your computer skills. This is just the sort of thing I wish I could do. I wish I lived near you so you could give me some lessons! Of course your son's partner was thrilled with it. I'm sure it will be treasured forever.

    Lynne x

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  7. Hello Kate ..all this and you made time to say hello to me .
    Thank you

    This piece ,both image and verse is so very moving .

    hugs Shirley-Anne

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  8. Kate, this is magnificent and what a special gift it is. Love the poem and am blown away by your PS editing skills, not to mention the awesome silhouette skills too. I need lessons in BOTH! This is another heirloom I think. TFS & Hugs

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  9. Well how did I miss this fabulous card Kate?! Gosh, so much painstaking work but what a great result! It really is such a 'one off' and very, very special indeed. Love the image and the verse, just perfect together!

    Re. the Judikins Peeping Angel image - I just looked back through your blog and see I went dotty over the image back then! And isn't it odd - the card I upcycled was a Hallmark card so perhaps Judikins sold the right to the image to them? That's me - always like the tail end of the donkey!

    And thanks too for the Sparkly Medium advice, I watched a view tutes on YouTube and have just ordered some to try. I guess you live and learn - and am amazed how many peeps have recommended Sparkly Medium - which of course I'd never heard of before!

    Hope you have a lovely weekend Kate!

    Hugs, Di xx

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  10. This is a beautiful gift. The poem and background you created are perfect together.

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  11. I can only say one thing about this - STUNNING.
    I am so impressed with what you can do - it really took my breath away. Well done you.
    Hugs, Neet xx

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