Michelle Ward posted a new crusade : “Make it your own ! “

If you want to read more about this challenge, please take a look at GPP-streetteam ( and visit the blogs of the other participants...)

When I look at my mom, myself, my daughter,... I really recognize in us three the urge to “be ourself”, to be creative and to learn of others, but then make it our own.

We have to participate in the society and we do, but we don’t want to be just the same as all the others...

Daughter Gaia says her friends say we are a “special” family , sometimes a bit odd, but that she’s proud that we are not “common”..

About the crusade : “make it your own”... A lot of people have kids, but mine are really “made my own”... especially Gaia...

In the previous post I told  how she is looking for her own style , using the creations of others to inspire her and then mixing it until it is her own style.

She has a lot of influences she uses in her drawings, her clothing, her hairstyle,...

I just couldn’t make her a “common” birthdaypresent.

My friend Dorien bought a few weeks ago on a fleamarket a “magical card”. I remember I’ve seen it before as a kid, but I never understood how it worked...

When we figured it out , I wanted to use it ,but to make it “my own”.

I used the skills I learned in photoshop to make a digital collage that reflects how my daughter is and a collage that’s is ME. ( read more here about the collage) and used this for the “magical card”.

What is so special about this card ?

Take a good look at the following photos ...

On the left side you see the outside of the card : this can be the front or the back...

When you open the card by turning the cover from the right to the left, you can see on the left side a cross with the money for Gaia and on the right her ATC behind two straight ribbons...

When I close the card again and flip the frontcover over from the left to the right, this is what happens...

I didn’t change the ATC and the money from their place ? How come the ATC is now under the cross and not under the straight ribbon ?

How to make this magical card ?

First you cover two cardboardcovers with a decorative paper. This comes on the inside of your card.

Then you turn them over so the covered side is on the table.

And here comes the secret... it is all about the places where you glue the ribbon on...

Maybe the next photo explains more...

Where the ribbons are glued on the cardboard, I cut away a few layers of the cardboard so the ribbon is glued here and is lying completely flat.

By doing this you avoid to see an imprint on the paper you glue on top of this covers.

I used printed bookbindinglinen to finish this covers. You can’t see on the finished covers that the ribbon is glued under it.

This makes it  really difficult to discover how it works when you show this card to other people.

Just put a small card or paper money inside the card , close and then flip it open right, close, flip over left... and see the surprised faces when they discover the money is under the cross and the other moment under the straight lines...

This is just one of the examples of how I try to make things  “my own”...

I guess that my website also reflects this... and the photos of my house also speak for themselves...

“Make it your own”...I guess this is also one of my guidelines in life...

Thanks Michelle for this new crusade ! ( and a happy birthday past sunday !!!)

Inge

PS : don’t forget to try to make this magical card and make it “your own”. Just show me what you create with this technique !