Big Impacts from Small Things

My mother-in-law, who is truly a shining example of a mother (I’m so lucky to have such wonderful in-laws!), received some unpleasant health news.  Not knowing things is just as stressful as receiving concrete bad news.  I’m a firm believer that stress does physically manifest itself.  Similarly, positivity can improve physical health.  (My 90-year-old grandmother is proof of that!)

So, I made an encouragement card to remind her to keep her chin up.  There is no point on dwelling things that you cannot change or undo.  We can only keep going forward and aiming for the stars.  One of my favourite quotes is: “Aim for the moon.  Even if you miss, you will still land amongst the stars.”

I didn’t have a starry sky image (although I’ve been eyeing some nice ones!) but I did have this image from A Day for Daisies of a wee little snail perched high up on a flower.  (Yes, I have some strange obsession with these snails.  I love how they look like little travelling rosebuds!)  The digital stamp is named “Hang in There” but I liked it better to convey the message “Look how Far You’ve Come”.  I wrote on the inside: “Keep Looking Up.  You’ll be surprised how high you can climb.”  I thought it was a nice form of encouragement.  (In fact, it might make for a nice graduation card too – if only there was an itty bitty graduation cap for that snail!)

Turns out the health news has been dealt with and we are expecting no further tests or treatments!  Hooray!
Happy thoughts for everyone!

If you find yourself in need of an encouragement card, I put a blue one in my Etsy Shop and a brown one in my iCraft shop.

Thank Goodness for Little Boys & give a poem a home

It's very hard to craft for boys.  Lucky for me, I have three nephews and no nieces so I am constantly trying to come up with cards for little boys.  A co-worker of mine was going off for maternity leave at the end of August.  She and her husband had their third child and they knew it was going to be a boy.  She has two little girls already, so a boy is going to be a brand new experience for them!

When I saw this digital stamp image from A Day for Daisies, I knew this was the perfect one for her!

I also composed a little poem for her.  (It can be for any baby: girl or boy.)

(Click photo to enlarge.)

Their son was born on labour day 2011!  Here's a picture of the little sprite.

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!