The Expensive Vase

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Preface

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This project is dedicated to my friend GuiPing as her birthday present. It is not my first time to make birthday cards for my friends, however it's the first time for me to record the production process. I want to use this chance to show the efforts of making each card.

I came up with the idea of making cards of appreciation around a year ago because somehow I realized that my university life was going to end soon. I felt an urge to appreciate friendship, family and encouragement by hand making cards. I had no experience in making cards but I guess my passion for design has enabled me to pick it up very fast.

I have made 18 cards so far. I am glad that most people like the cards that I make! Some of them burst into tears when they saw that. But I have also overheard that people judge the efforts that I put in to make cards by the size of the card or the decoration on the card. I want to say that I have put in equal efforts in making every card. To me, every friend is unique. I make cards according to my understanding of the person: personality, hobbies, wishes, good and bad things happened, favorite place, food and color... It may take me hours just to search online to find inspirations. I select cardboard's printed pattern and color for different people. I wish that I could give the best present to the person as a sweet surprise. I want to continue producing hand made cards and continue bringing happiness to people around me.

I am grateful to have every of my friend to be in my life. You have made me a better person. Please reward me with more years of friendship to come. :)

The Expensive Vase Project

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• Size of Card: 12''×12''
• Production Time: 12 hours
• Materials Used: Leeho White Glue, NT Cutter and Cutting Mat, Metal Sheet, Color Paper, Cardstock & Paper Pad

Expensive vase is 贵瓶 in Chinese, which is the pronunciation of GuiPing. It can be seen as a creative idea rather than a lame joke :P I searched online and found that the most expensive vase so far was sold at £53.1million in 2010. So I decided to copy the design of the Chinese vase as shown below. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1329308/53m-Chinese-vase-kept-wobbly-bookcase-insured-just-800.html).

The details of the design is as shown below. The background is pure black color so that the colorful vase can stand out better. The left side design is the expensive vase which has been taken from the brown wooden box. The right side design consists of three parts. Top right is GuiPing wearing the uniform of a geographer, hiking in a forest in Thailand. The middle design refers to the time where GuiPing and I went ice skating together. The bottom right design consists of a kiwi bird that poking GuiPing in her head and a crying GuiPing who says 'OUCH!'. I chose kiwi bird because it represents New Zealand which is one of her favorite places.