neonfoxtongue

National Stationary Show - Another Fave: Bird Pie Press

What a difference a year makes!  Last year, reading blog posts about the National Stationary Show had me oooh-ing and aaah-ing over virtually every photo.  After a year of seeing A LOT of new card and stationary designs via blogs, Etsy and magazines, however, I'm noticing that I'm not falling in love with *everything* I'm seeing in the blog re-caps of the show this year.  Don't me wrong, I do like a lot (probably most) of what I'm seeing - there is still a ton of really creative stuff out there when it comes to stationary and paper goods.  I think I'm just focussing my design and style preferences more, which I see as a good thing, because it will help me with my own creative projects.

That said, I have found at least one more favourite - Pie Bird Press.  This is the card that first caught my eye:

(photo by Design*Sponge)

I love that you could just stick this card (sans envelope) on top of a gift and there's your bow!

Then I saw this post by Oh, Mishka and was really struck by the vibrant colours, so I went to their site to see more.  Here are some more faves:

{Ginko}

{Yarn}

{Peacock Feather}

Lovely, aren't they?  What I really like is that I could easily find dozens of reasons to send these cards to all sorts of people. 

So that's my latest fave.  If any more catch my eye, I'll post about them tomorrow, along with my regular Friday I'm In Love feature.  See ya then!

National Stationary Show - My Fave (So Far)

I found out about the National Stationary Show last year via the various design and craft blogs I had recently begun reading.  I think it would be *the* design show for me, given that I'm an uber-fan of all things paper.  I've been following the great coverage that Design*Sponge is doing on this year's show and if you have any interest in stationary and/or great design, I suggest you do the same.  So far, this letterpress card by Sycamore Street Press is my favourite.  It was designed by Be A Decent Human Being (Not exactly their site, but it's only relevant link I could find).

 

    I love how how it's sincere and irreverent at the same time.  I'd love to give (or receive) this card.

   If I see any more faves, I'll post them.

Creative Goals Monday: Knitting Unblocked!

Welcome to Knit Town, population: me!  Well, actually population: millions, but that also includes me!  I'm happy to report that I'm excited about knitting again.  One of my creative goals last week was to get over my knit block, which was caused by my trouble with the lacy scarf pattern I've been trying to make.  To get over my block, I decided to completely ignore the scarf and to just knit. I made a small swatch of multi-coloured yarn and practiced some stitches.  I also started on new cuff, using the 3.25mm needles that arrived from London in our shipped boxes, suitcases and music equipment.  (Aside: So happy to have my crafty supplies back!) I'm keeping the stitches simple enough for me to knit while watching movies or TV, so it's a lot easier for me to just pick up the work and go for it. 

I did really well on my other goals too.  I made not one, but two birthday cards, one Artist Trading Card, and I reconciled all my project ideas into my large sketch book.  Even better, I didn't do all of these things in one day, meaning that I had several creative days during the week, which is also a goal of mine.  So I'm pretty proud of my creative accomplishments this past week.  **pats self on back**

For this coming week, my creative goals are:

• Work on the lacy scarf
• Work on other easier knitting projects
• Re-organize my craft supplies so I can find things easily.
• Make another ATC
• Work on my blog banner (I have the tool I need now!)

I've decided that my reward for finishing the lacy scarf will be to buy myself this book.  Hopefully, that will help keep me on track!

Here's some visual stimulus for this post - the graduation card I made for my cousin.  She graduated from college in Washington DC on Friday.  I can remember holding her when she was just a few months old and now she's a college grad - crazy!

The photo (mine) is of the city walls of Dubrovnik, Croatia. It's a beautiful city and was one of the highlights of our travels in March.

Wishing you a creative week!

("Creative Goals" font is Monbijoux by Billy Argel)

Creative Goals Monday: Card Success, Knit Fail

I must have knitters block.  I just can't seem to make the time to knit, because let's face it, I'm unemployed so I have the time.  I'm avoiding it. I'm just not into figuring out the lacy scarf pattern.  So I have to unblock myself somehow.  Perhaps I need to just play with some stitches and swatches again.  Anyone have any other ideas?

So yeah, as you can probably guess, I didn't meet my knitting goal from last week.  But I met my other three goals so I'm happy about that.  I'm really pleased with how my Mother's Day cards and the graduation card turned out.  And I sketched out how I want my blog banner to look.  I'll need to work on it some more, as well as wait for a key tool that I want to use, which is currently waiting in storage for a certain government agency to decide if our shipment from London can be released to us.  But I'm liking how it's looking so far.

Last week was pretty great for project ideas too.  I came up with a few on my own, and I also got to brainstorm with another friend on a great project she wants to execute.  I realised that I have a whole lot of ideas, doodles and sketches in various notebooks, sketch pads and scraps of paper, so one my new creative goals is to consolidate them in one place as much as possible.  But before we get into this week's goals, here are the Mother's Day cards:



Here's the one for my Mother-in-Law.  It's a combination of papers from various sources, including The Paper Place and a freebie print-out from Martha (I think).

 
Here's the one I made for my Mom, using papers from an Autumn Leaves set that my aunt had bought on special and let me have a few sheets.  Both my Mom and I love poppies so it was a no brainer to use them for her card.

I only have to make one card this week, so it gives me a chance to have more diverse goals for the week:

• one birthday card
• make a couple of ATCs
• reconcile all my creative ideas and sketches into one place
• get over my knitting block...somehow!
• continue working on my blog design

Hopefully next week I'll be able to update that I'm back to knitting.  I don't want to push myself too much because I always want to enjoy knitting (or any crafty endeavour for that matter), but I think I do need to push myself a bit in this case to get over the block.  Wish me luck!

Hope you have a creative week!

Into the Flick(r) of things

(card for online friend's b-day, 2008)

I was really slow getting into Flickr.  Reaaallly slow.  I didn't create an account until late last year and I've barely used it since.  To be honest, I could't quite figure out the "what's in this for me?" aspect of the site, beyond having a place to store photos online.  But thanks to my daily reading of craft and design blogs, I'm gradually starting to learn about the community aspect of Flickr.  I still have a lot to learn and I'm only just starting to play around with the thing - joining groups, like this one and this one and slowly adding to my list of favourite photo finds.  But I think I might like it here and hang around for a bit.  Feel free to join me.

 

(cousin's b-day, Feb. 2008)

Creative Goals Monday: yarn, paper and design

It's funny, I usually start writing my Creative Goals Monday posts feeling a bit disappointed with my crafty efforts of the past week, but when I review the goals I made the week previous, I'm surprised to find that I've pretty much met them.  Does this mean that my weekly goals are too eady, or that I tend to forget how much craftiness I got up to?  Maybe it's a little of both, but I do think it might be time to be make my weekly goals just a bit more challenging.

This past week, I planned out a few cards but didn't do much in the way of putting them together.  I also worked on my two knitting projects, the lacy scarf and the pouch for The Leopard's digital recorder.  I ran into some trouble with the lacy scarf and unfortunately had to pull out two rows of knitting.  I need to do a bit of research on one of the stitches (yarn over); I thought I was doing it properly, but it just isn't working out.  But I still think I can figure it out.

The pouch is coming along though.  When I last posted a pic of it, it looked like this.  Now it looks like this:
I've made a few mistakes, including a huge slipped stitch (or something) which resulted in a pretty big hole.  Thankfully, the yarn hides most of the issues.  I figure I only need a few more rows and then I'm going add some on purpose holes for a drawstring. 

So for this week's (more challenging) goals, I'm going to:

• Knit every day: finish the knitting part of the pouch and figure out the pattern for the scar
• Make three cards: two birthday, one retirement
• Work on a new design for my blog, including a banner for my Friday I'm in Love posts

The Leopard and I are working on being better with our time management and daily schedule these days, so I'm hoping that setting more challenging creative goals will help me in this respect. In fact, I've met my non-crafty goals for today, so I'm going to leave the 'puter now and go and enjoy the sunshine with my knitting needles!

Have you set any creative goals this week? 

Project pics: knitted cuff and birthday cards

Because Monday`s post was a bit photo deprived and I have a few completed projects to post about, this post post is going to be photo heavy and short on text. I don`t have to blather on all the time!*

So here`s my first completed knitted project in all its (non) glory.
 

I admit that my favourite things about this project are the materials - the awesome button I bought here and the super soft cotton yarn.  But I`m pretty proud that I made the cuff without a pattern and just figured it out as I went along.  Plus, I love moss stitch and I`m glad I chose it for this project.  I figure it`s a decent first attempt and I definitely want to try to make another one, probably less wide and with smaller needles (I used 4.5mm).

Here are two birthday cards I made and gave recently:

 

They`re both pretty simple designs because I`m working with a limited amount of crafty tools, particularly stamps and inks.  The first one was for my aunt - I bought the floral/leaf patterned paper in at The Papery in Ottawa and I'm glad I got finally got to use it for a card.  The second card was for my cousin, who turned 22 this month so I used ink and sparkle glue to highlight that.  This photo doesn't do the sparkles justice unfortunately. 

And because I feel like adding one more pic, here's one from our walk in High Park last Friday.

I didn't realise that the park had a little zoo!  This king of the hill was doing a great impression of a mountain goat, but he's actually a sheep!  Who knew?  You learn something new every day!

*Just most of the time!

Creative Goals Monday: back to card making

Hi there!  I can't believe it's Monday already and time for another CG Monday update.  I had a really nice weekend at my parents' house, catching up with family and doing some crafting.  I did fairly well with my weekly creative goals and got back on track with card making - I made three cards over the weekend.  I didn't finish my knitting project, but I did find some instructions on making button holes so I'll be able to finish it this week.

I made two birthday cards and the following thank you card:

It's for a friend/former colleague who did me a really nice favour last week.  I used some card stock and thread I had at my parents'.  It was great to play with supplies I hadn't seen in a while!

I'll post pics of the birthday cards later this week.  As for this week's creative goals, they are:

• finish knitted cuff (possibly at The Workroom's Stitch 'n Bitch tomorrow night)
• baby card
• birthday card
• half an hour of sketching/doodling

I think that should keep me busy for the week.  Do you have any creative goals for the week?  If so, please share them in the comments!

nft card: baby!

Last year, The Leopard and I had a bit of a baby boom within our circle(s) of friends.  Five babies.  And four of them girls!  So that meant a lot more light pink in my card making than usual.  I'm not a big fan of colour coding gender, but I will make exceptions, especially for new moms who already have a rough and tumble little boy (and therefore enough blue and green) in their lives.  This one is for little Z, whose mommy, W, is a very talented writer and potter.  The cut-out circles are chipboard pieces that I inked and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  I got the yellow and pink gingham paper for free(!) from Printable Heaven.

(Yes, I know the flower border on the right is crooked.  The glue dried too quickly.  I had to deal with it and so do you.)

The next one was for our London friends K and A who become first-time parents to lovely little girl in in Summer.

I was in inspired by a magazine for this one.  The top part of the pram is an add-on to the card; the fold is actually just above the flower border.  It makes for a neat affect!  The polk-a-dot paper came in one of the issues of the same magazine.

So far, we're only expecting two babies in 2009, but the year is still young!  Baby cards are fun to make so I'm definitely up for creating a few more.  I wouldn't mind a few blue and green ones though!

nft card: mom's birthday

Hello again!  I'm back after a short break to celebrate the festive season and recover from an intense, but thankfully short-lived cold.   I'm still off work until Friday though, so it's a good time to get some blogging done.  I'm working on a feature that I will kick off in the New Year, but for now I'm going to continue posting some of my crafty efforts.  The Leopard has kindly re-sized all the photos he has taken of the cards I've made and saved them in one spot so I can access and post about them easily.   Now I just have to to the same for the items I've photographed. 

This is the card I made for my mom's birthday in September.  She's an avid gardener and has quite the green thumb, something I haven't quite inherited.  (Aside: I probably have about a 60% survival rate for any plants that I get, which isn't terrible, but when you have the bad habit of naming each and every plant, losing that 40% can be pretty traumatizing.)  My mom has also studied interior design and loves architectural features, so I went with a classical garden theme. 

The images came from a pack of scrap images and papers I picked up at Michael's (so sad that I'm missing their post-holiday sales!) last year and I'm pretty sure I printed the background pattern from Martha, but it was ages ago so I've lost the link.  I embossed the happy birthday sentiment and used decorative chalk to add depth to the architectural details (it's a bit hard to see, but it's there, I promise).  I was really happy with how this one turned out - hope you like it too!

Wishing you all a very happy New Year - see you in 2009!