Wednesday 29 April 2015

Crazy for Christmas

 
Yup, I'm crazy. 
Our first 20+ C. day here in Ottawa, and I'm talking about Christmas cards!
I'm following Justine Hovey's Christmas Card Tutorial 2015.
She provides a video lesson and PDF with a new technique theme each week.
This is my CASE of the first week's tutorial.

Then I had fun playing with the techniques a little more:
And my favorite:
I'm getting lots of inspiration from the cards the other class participants send in, too.

Never too early to start on Christmas cards, especially as I intend to contribute to the Caring Hearts Card Drive again this year (so I hope Vera Wirianta Yates hosts it again!).
Check out Justine's blog and the Christmas Card Tutorial 2015. She's offering a monthly prize, too.
Take my Current Class

Sunday 12 April 2015

Planning ahead...

This may seem a little premature--we're only JUST into April, and I'm designing Mother's and Father's Day cards...

These will be the projects for my next stint, volunteering in the Recreation Therapy dept at the Rehabilitation Centre where I work (as a speech therapist).  The  recreation therapists asked for M and F Day cards, and a third generic design (still working on that one, but it'll probably involve water-colour pencils).  The idea is to introduce people who've had a traumatic injury or diagnosis of degenerative disorder, to new past-times,or help them realize they can still do things they used to love. Being creative is good for your health!
Anyway, the M-day cards involve colouring with alcohol marker on the BACK of heat-embossed vellum. I used some beautiful floral stamps from Create A Smile.

I made up a couple of samples, to give an idea of different possibilities for colour.  All materials are cut out, so the participants just need to stamp, colour and assemble. I prepared the heat-embossed panels ahead of time, too (having learned from experience that embossing powder gets EVERYWHERE when you teach a class...). I CASEd this idea from Justine Hovey.
The Father's Day cards feature the awesome stamp-of-the-month from Close to My Heart: Typed Note. Isn't that vintage typewriter the cutest? Reminds me of THIS video: priceless :)
The stamp set features many different messages to stamp onto the "page."
Again, a couple of different ideas for personalizing with colour.
Adding some Glaze pen to the keys made them stand out.

Off to enjoy our beautiful  15° C weather!
Happy Sunday,
Caroline