Thursday, May 29, 2008

All Tied Up!

When I saw this new little Kindred Spirit Dad from Gina K, I was thinking how fun it would be to paper piece his shirt and make a matching shirt and tie to go with it! I'd seen these little origami shirt and ties before but had never tried to make them(well, I made my own version of a tux and collar eons ago, but not the same) Well, check out this great video tutorial from Susannah Boyd! SO simple! So I was able to whip up this matching ensemble in just a couple minutes! (both papers are from the DCVW Spring mat stack), so excited to know how to do this now :) I won't even bother retelling the directions, just grab your paper and go watch! (when you're done reading about my card!)

I was trying to decide whether I wanted to make this for my dad or my kids' dad (DH) because this would change how I colored the people. It was then I noticed the "girl" could be the mom and son or the sister looking on with the brother! (This may have been obvious to everyone but me, but since I had only used it before to make the wallet insert for my father, I'd been thinking of the "girl and boy" as my brother and I growing up, it was just stuck in my head that way.) Once I figured that out, I decided to color them to look like my oldest son and I with my husband(we never give him ties, though*) and kept all the colors within the same palette as the DP's. I pieced the shirt from my scrap and colored the tie to look like the origami, I just love how he's not wearing a tie with the shirt in the image and then it looks like you're seeing the folded ensemble together with the pic of him receiving it earlier, fun and matchy match! :)


I considered putting the family snapshot inside the card so I wouldn't cover up the cute folding, but really wanted it to be on the outside. I also considered having the snapshot hanging off the edge but didn't want to mess with having to make a custom envelope to fit it**! Then I thought about making a huge card out of one folded sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 since I have big envelopes, but I just wasn't liking how much space that left around my shirt and image, even when adding other layers and such. Finally, I decided to just overlap the tie a bit with my stamped image, popped up on dimensionals. That looked pretty good, but it need something else in the corner, besides just the greeting. I decided to make a little sleeve folded over from the extra piece I had from cutting my shirt, and folded up the cuff. (I like how the white edge there echoes the collar and points toward "Dad"). I attached it with dimensionals. Inside I stamped "Thanks for always taking care of us! Happy Father's Day!", also from the Kindred Greetings for Him.



BTW, Susannah gave me a shout out for my Kindred wallet tutorial over at her most excellent blog! Check it out along with some other fab tutorials! :)


* and if we did, he'd never wear this one. (He's got a bajillion plaid shirts, though, similar to this one, all in only slightly varying shades of blue and green...does that sound like your husband??)

** this finished card fits in an A2 envelope

24 comments:

  1. Great Father's Day Card! I've always been fond of the origami shirt and tie, but I love your take on it, with the collar above the cardstock and one sleeve on the front along with the stamped image. Another great idea, TFS!

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  2. Oh, this is so cute and very clever!

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  3. Melanie I love the way you added the sleeve! Thanks for the link to the tutorial.
    Laurie

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  4. Oh man, so totally creative! I love this shirt paired with the image!

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  5. Oh my goodness, what a fabulous Father's Day card, so cute & clever indeed!

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  6. This is such a great idea for a Father's day card---especially with the image on it with the matching shirt! TFS~

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  7. This is adorable!! What a great idea.

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  8. The is a great card to echo the stamp image! congrats on the shout out!

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  9. Man :D You totally made my entire day -- heck, maybe the week! -- this card is adorable and thanks so much for the plug! I think you sold me on the Father's Day stamps!

    Susanna

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  10. OH that is soooooo cool!!!! What an awesome card for Dads!! Oh the possibilities of color and texture and design!!! Wow!!!

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  11. Awesome---love that bg you created! Great that it fits in an a2 envie too..gonna have to try it!

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  12. Susanna Boyds tutorial is much, much simpler than a previous paper shirt tutorial I saw. And it used less paper.

    Thank you.

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  13. I had to go back and look at the added sleeve, Virgo mentioned in her post.

    Adding a pocket with a vellum pocket protector would be funny.

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  14. How cute is that?! I love it!

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  15. very fun!! What a great idea!!

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  16. Why can't I be this talented? This is absolutely fabulous!!! Totally love it!!

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  17. This is so super cute!! I love the plaid and yes it does look like my DH's shirts.
    LOVE IT!!!!

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  18. this is absolutely terrific in every way! I love it, Mel! TFS the link to Susannah's blog and tutorial!

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  19. Had to do it! You got a shout out over at Card of the Week.com; you can see the post at http://www.cardoftheweek.com/2008/05/card-of-the-w-4.html

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  20. totally cute and thanks for the link

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