Project - thoughts and design

So, the work begins.  After I have done my research and developed a game plan in my head for a card or project, then I proceed to gather my elements, do my backgrounds, etc.  The card size will be 22"X30", which is a full watercolor sheet, I am using 140#, cold pressed hand made paper, 2 sheets.  The wide dimension will be the 22" because it will allow me to do the border on my Cameo with my 12"X24" Cricut mat.  The background for front and back will be one of my spatter backgrounds and I will take pictures and explain the process as I go.  At the bottom of the card will be a boarder made from a map of Pakistan, it will be more of a topigraphical map than a map with cities etc.  On top of the mat will be books, books standing, laying down, and stacked.  There will be a Markhor (the national animal of Pakistan) it is a wonderful, mythological looking goat with the most fabulous goatee you have ever seen.  There will also be a Kabuli Rubab  which is a short necked Lute, it is an instrument played frequently in the NW Region of Pakistan where Malala grew up.  Then from the books will be pages flying upwards twirling and swirling as if in a beautiful gust of wind and the pages will have words on them, dream, learn, teach, love, pray, etc, as many beautiful and motivational words as I can get on the card.  The card will be bound together with book binder's tape and then will be embellished with ribbons.  It appears that one of  Malala's favorite   colors is pink, so the covers will be pinks and white and cream with little undertones of yellow and orange to warm it all up.  Inside the card will be approx. 200 tiny envelopes, each envelope will hold 1 or 2 messages of healing, prayer, and wishes for Malala's full recovery, from anyone and everyone we can get to do one.  So that is it in a nutshell, my plans sometimes grow and change a bit, I am always willing to go with the flow of my designs.  I have always worked with symbols in my design work, no matter whom or what I am designing for, as I work on the project, I have almost a meditative state where I bless the project and the person and persons who will be touched by it. 

The small envelopes are an image from the Silhouette Library that I took the "wave" knife to the top, it represents the oceans that separate us from Malala, I am thinking about putting a dove on each envelope to represent the fact that love has wings and cannot be separated from the giver and receiver.  I have 200 cut, now just need to put them together, lol.

Yesterday was a pretty rough start to the project, anything and everything that could go awry, did.  My blog ran out of picture storage, 2 1/2 hours to fix that because I could not find my Picasa storage but finally did.  Then my printer got food poisoning as I inserted (unknowingly knock off cartridges), oh that was a fun panic as I went to 2 call centers and both wanted big buckaroos to fix, but in the end I got my answers, found a delightful sales person at Office Max, who gave me his card and told me that if the real thing cartridges would not do the job to bring them back and he would refund my money, bless him.  Then a very good friend shared her Chinese food with me, okay, that helped, she is a sweetie. The calls to the call center ran my cell phone minutes down to 90, lol, have told everyone not to call but text message me til I get more, lol.  But my day ended beautifully with a soft knock on my door and when I opened it, there stood my beautiful son and his gorgeous wife and I got hugs that nutured and replenished.

I think it is off to a good start, but the real work has really yet to begin, I am hoping tomorrow, I will be ready to begin the cover process, until then hope everyone has a wonderful Friday and fun fun weekend, hugs