Suits You Sir!

Hello all.  It’s great to see you here.  Before I get into talking about this card I’d like to take a moment to say a very warm welcome to new followers.  I’m absolutely thrilled to pieces that you’ve signed up here, – so a big thank you!

I actually made this card about two weeks ago and I’ve been struggling ever since to get the photographs loaded, sort out the clearest ones, (most of them look like I was joggimg while operating the camera),  resize them (to make them smaller than the size of an Olympic swimming pool!) and then load them onto the blog here.  Time seems to have flown and before I could blink, every day came to its end about 12 hours before I needed it to.  But … better late than never….

The idea behind this card came from looking at cards which had been made for men for all sorts of occasions: Birthdays, Anniversary, Fathers Day,  ‘Congratulations’ cards, and also cards sent to celebrate Civil Partnerships. I always struggled finding a decent shop bought card for men, but making one is even worse!  So I thought I’d give myself a challenge to come up with a design which would be a little different.  Something  which had a bit of style (and a spoonful of humour),  but instead of it being for a specific occasion, I wanted to make a ‘multi-functional’ type of card, which would be great as a card sent on or for any occasion.  I especially wanted to include a Civil Partnership suitable card as I’ve grown so tired of seeing two cut outs of grooms in wedding attire on the front of a card.  They’re great, and they state what the cards for, but I wanted something different. I began by fixing two 6″x6″ cards together and cutting the flap to the left hand side of the fold in a diagonal from inner crease top, to the outer corner bottom.

2 6×6″ white cards glued to each other, then the centre panel lined with black card.

The right hand side of the card was firstly cut in the same way, but then cut again, as you can see in the photo above.  This was in order for it to become the folded over side of the suit jacket. 

Adding the ‘fabric pattern’ of the suit

I originally began this idea thinking I was going to make a striped suit, but instead I chose a more fun, spotty card – black with white dots. I added two silver buttons, and made a jacket breast pocket – with faux stitching, to make it look like it was stitched to the front of the card.  I made the stitch holes using a sewers marker tool:

the white card shows the little holes made by the tool.

The collar to the jacket was an easy make.  Two strips of cardstock, cut to the correct length and scored (with a 1cm fold which would be used to fix the collar to the inside edge), then cut and shaped, with a ‘v’ cut out at just the right point, to represent a collar on a jacket, and then fixed to the card. Then it needed a shirt.  I simply measured the width of the inner card, then took off around a centimetre and cut some white card to that width.  I scored the card across the width at the depth I wanted the collar to be, and then cut down the centre of the card just enough to make it look like the shirt was unbuttoned a the top.  I then rounded the corners of the collar with my Memory Keepers Corner Chomper.  Next: came the tie. Aww, now this proved to be a big pain in the rear end – because the only time I’ve ever tied a tie was when I was in my Secondary School, and it was around my neck.  I can tie ties around my neck … but doing it around this card was something of a skill that was lost on me.  It took me roughly seven or eight go’s before I got even close.  <sigh>  But .. in the end I managed it and gave myself a well deserved  ‘FINALLY!!!’  – out loud and very exhaustingly proud. The shirt was fixed into place.  The tie was fixed so that the knot would hang free, but that the body of the tie would kind of bunch a little over the jacket closure. and finally, the jacket was fixed into place and ‘closed’. Then came the tags for tucking into the ‘pocket’ which I’d just made within the card, inside the shirt. The larger of the two tags is for the ‘dedication’ of the card (to/from etc):-  I think I found that frame on the Graphics Fairy – but wherever it was, I changed it so that it matched the purple of the tie.  The long slim tag was stamped with an empty clock face – the idea being that the time could be filled by the sender drawing on the hands to mark the time appropriate.  It could be the time he was born;  Time the child sending the card was born;  Time of the Civil Partnership;  etc etc.  And above the clock face – details of what the time meant/means;  date of birth etc, or maybe: details of where the receiver of the card is meant to meet you (say for a meal) – etc etc.  Or even maybe a photograph(s) of children or of the receiver themself. The backs of the tags  … the larger one is a vintage image which I coloured to match the tie;  and the long slim tag is a copy of an original vintage postcard of the same length and width as you see in the photograph. I added a paper rose and some metal filigree leaves.  (Metal for the more masculine feel of them), and a fob watch on a chain, which I draped up to the breast pocket, and fixed in place with a ring.  (The chain hangs free, and gives movement to the card.) I made a tag for the breast pocket too and added some folded and stitched ribbon to the end of it, to make the handkerchief popping out of the pocket. And finally …  I made a matching box for the card. The tiny shirt fixed to the front of the box is actually one piece of folded paper (sort or origami style folding), and I made a tie out of two pieces of card which was closest in colour to the tie on the card as I could possibly get.  I added a blank tag to the front of the box so that the recipient’s name could be added, just as you would do on an envelope.

The whole set!

I have to admit that there were times, as I was making this card, that I began to wish I’d never started – it seemed to be taking me forever to do the smallest things.  However, once it was finished and I sat back and looked at it, I loved it. Thank you so much for coming today and having a look at this card.  Hope you like it.

Have a wonderful rest of your day.  May the weather be kind and may life treat you well.

Lots of love ~