Farewell Gift

While I enjoyed making this gift to give to our Team Leader I was sad at the same time because she is leaving the team. She has had such a positive impact and has been real fun to get to know as well as being supportive and protective of each of us in the team. She will be sorely missed.



This was my starting point - a recycled basket with pink tissue paper for presentation, an equally pink notebook and a box of chocolate truffles. Of course I love to do altered journals so that was a given. Decorating chocolate boxes is fun and since by now I had a pink and brown colour scheme developing and I knew I had saved a length of brown ribbon that had 'delicious' printed on it, things were starting to take shape.

I knew I had some colourful Doodlebug papers lurking somewhere waiting for just the right photos of Maddy and I knew if I used strips of paper in a patchwork theme I could salvage enough to still do a page later. Since I have the sewing machine still out I decided to use real stitching. I have included this shot in case anyone was interested in seeing how I did this.

I simply 'tacked' my strips onto thin card and stitched rows of zigzag at the joins across one side of the card to the other in one continuous length. Then I stitched around each block with straight stitch.

Once I had worked out the remaining elements of my design (and I just had to feature one of my new MS punches) I cut my blocks apart.

Next I sewed the text and paper lace on 'production line' style which is a technique I picked up years ago and makes the job quicker and easier as well as saving thread. Once at the end you simply snip them all apart.

After that it was simply a case of adding them to brightly colour card blanks and adding a few buttons for 3D fun. They turned out a whole lot brighter than I had originally intended but I know she'll love em.

Next was adding a panel to the notebook, embellishing, adding tabs to match and finishing off with ribbon down the spine. I left the first piece of ribbon long so she'd have a ribbon marker to save her page. In total I made 6 panels - 1 for the notebook, 1 for her leaving card and 4 for a set of handmade gift cards.

All that remained was to create a tag which consisted of trimmings of paper as a border and featured the title of the quote (see below). I wrapped it in celophane to keep everything together and keep it clean as I didn't want the other girls in the office sifting through it before she did. I had a friend help me drop it off at my office real quick tonight and I'm phoning her tomorrow to say a final farewell.

'Believe in Your Heart'

Look with hope to the horizon of today for today is all we truly have. Live this day well. Let a little sun out as well as in. Create your own rainbows. Be open to all your possibilities; all possibilities and miracles. Believe in your heart something wonderful is about to happen! - anon.

I wanted to wish her all wonderful opportunities and possibilities so I thought this quote suited this gift. I have it on a small plaque that stands on the shelf above the computer and it's the first time I've actually used it. I'm really glad I did.