Take Note

Yesterday I held a workshop for my creative crew.  We learned how to make easel cards.  On one of the cards, we inked an embossed pattern which really makes it pop.

I also showed my crew how cookie-cutter dies work.  They are see though so that you can see where you are placing the cut.  We used my cookie-cutter dies to cut out the F and the Friend sentiments.  What I like about inking plain white embossed paper is that you can use the same colour as your stamped image to create a perfect match.  There is no guess work about ink colours and cardstock colours.

I also showed my girls how this technique can be applied to other projects like these composition notebooks.

I made some of these with the red flowers and will be donating them to the Kards for Kids drive for the Toronto Sick Kids Hospital.  They have asked for some notebooks to give the parents to keep track of appointments and other important medical information.

I might even make a batch of these for the Executive Administrators at work this year for Christmas.

Another Kitty in the Window

We had another Executive Administrator depart the firm's employment.  She's one of my creative crew, so I will still get to see her and hear all the juice from her new firm. (wink)  She is also going back to school to pursue a Chartered Accountant designation.  She has a high level of commitment so I'm sure she will be fine as she works her way through the courses.  If she needs a little help, well, she'll be surrounded by accountants at work!

I know she has a grey cat and a black cat at home.  I also know she has a tough time photographing her black one.  So, I decided to create her card with a black cat!

This paper die cut cat is my own original design.  I meant for it to be cartoony with its giant paws and all.  It is made in pieces so I could make a patchwork calico cat if I wanted too.  (I outlined his snout with grey ink but it didn't come out well in the photos.)  This kitty is looking through a window in the card front.  I've worked at the same firm since my co-operative terms at university so, when people leave, I feel like I'm watching them go from a window - never to step outside the walls myself.  It's a scary world out there and I watch them all go off in to the wild yonder.

On the outside, I put the cat's thought bubble on a piece of projector transparency so the dots could hang through the window.  The full cat die cut is on the inside with my message.  This window was cut with my new nesting bracket squares from Lifestyle Crafts.  I got kinds of nesting dies and I have been playing with them a lot lately!  We'll be using them for my upcoming easel card class too!  Weeee!

Pantone Colours 2011 - The Brown Collection

Pantone comes out with colours for each season.  The Fall 2011 "in-colours" are somewhat soft or mute which, for me, symbolizes how summer recedes into Fall.

Dee, from DeeCaffeinated, has featured my card in a treasury that highlights some of the cooler tones in the Fall in-colours.  Mine is the card with butterflies which shows the colours nougat and phlox.

'Pantone Fall 2011 Color Outlook - Quarry, Coffee Liqueur, Nougat, Cedar' by DeeCaffeinated

Inspired by the Pantone 2011 Fall Color outlook http://www.pantone.com/pages/pantone/pantone.aspx?pg=20835&ca=4Previously curated treasuries in Bamboo and Honeysuckle

Thanksgiving / Fall Gif... ThisandThatCra... $3.99	Brown Orange Gold Fall ... ScrappyTudeStu... $98.00	Autumn Floral Bib Neckl... PrettyPigDesig... $30.00
Victoria - Sterling sil... lamazonian $195.00	Encouragement Card Butt... fairycardmaker $4.25	French fine art photogr... lumieredumatin $15.00
16x16 Accent Pillow COV... pasqueflower $12.50	Crazy Lace Agate Bracel... FireflyMyst $24.00	Journal Notebook Handma... MandarinMoon $45.00
Camellia & Green Tea So... tillydesigns $5.50	Freshwater Multi color ... vintagerelics $25.00	Copper and Fire Agate W... SnowHandmadeJe... $35.00
Autumn Quatrefoil Fresh... taradawn $18.00	Cream cushion with gree... bettymo25 $60.00	Metallic Spiral Rope Ne... CarefreeJewelr... $15.00
Degrade Green Mohair C... Starpompon $80.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio. 

You can see Dee's other Pantone Fall 2011 colour finds on her blog: Designed by Dee.

More Handmade Holidays for SOAR!

I made a couple more Christmas cards to put in the pile that will be donated to the Southern Ontario Animal Rescue this year.  You can read about the first batch in my earlier post.  Claire, one of my creative crew, also took some extra envelopes home to make more bagalopes for SOAR's annual Howliday Party.  She's made 10 more of these, with the super cute black paw ribbons!

I had to make some cards for a co-worker who is moving on in her career (yes, another one! More on that later.)  So, I designed a quick Christmas card and used a sentiment I had stamped for a previous class (I have so many extras still).  It turned out cute so I made another one to put in the SOAR pile!  It's the snowflake one.

It was really fast to emboss and then ink the raised design.  It has a very distressed look which adds to the texture.  I really like how it turned out so I'm making more cards with that technique.

For the reindeer (which is a gorgeous Harmonie stamp - Harmonie being a Canadian company), I used up some scraps.  I created the patchwork background from some scraps of Christmas paper.  I put the reindeer on foam tape to make it pop out from the slightly busy background better.

I'm sure I'll think of some more designs between now and the end of October. :)