Mousy Birthday

I finished my Grammie's custom order of cards for this year.  I included 10 holiday cards, a handful of Thank-you cards and two birthday cards.  Here's a peek at one of the holiday cards:

It's a snowflake holiday card.  I used a BossKut snowflake die and an Quickutz snowflake embossing folder.  I love the look of embossing.  The die cut seemed to match the style of the embossing folder, so I went with it.

I also made these mousy birthday cards.  I tried to keep them masculine, but the mouse is a girl.  So, I think it makes this card gender neutral.  Since Grammie is a girl and she is the sender, the mouse can be her and it can be sent to girls or boys.

I coloured them with my copics.  I also used a sparkle gel pen on the flower centres for a touch of glitz.  The digital image is from Di's Digi Downloads.  She has some really cute critters.

These ones are larger than normal cards.  I had some 4.5 by 7 inch envelopes that I wanted to use up.  However, I don't like making cards larger than 6 inches.  At 6 inches I can get 2 from a 12 x 12 inch page of cardstock.  So, I cut these envelopes down and added a patterned paper flap.  I got the idea from the tailored envelope tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers.

Next on the to-do list: Make the sample for my upcoming workshop!  This one is going to be finished just under the wire.  That seems to be the trend as of late!

Fall Auction Date for Dog Rescue

The date of the Speaking of Dogs online auction has been announced!  They will have over 200 items available, including my dog mini-album.  My album is one of the less expensive donations but a lot of supporters have donated BIG ticket items too.  Please remember to check out the offerings from FRIDAY NOVEMBER 4th, 9am to SUNDAY NOVEMBER 13th, 9 pm EST.

Handmade Journals - Kards for Kids

Some time ago, I mentioned the Kards for Kids blog where a working mom volunteer gathers cards donated by cardmakers to take to Toronto's Sick Kids Hospital.  The nurses there had requested some notebooks too for the parents to keep track of appointments and medications and such.  So, I decided to try altering some notebooks.

(Click for larger picture.)

I tried to make the blue ones as masculine options for the dads.  All these stamps are from Hampton Art.  I really like the elegance of the leaves.  Speaking of stamps, I originally heard about this card drive from High Hopes Rubber Stamps, a stamp shop out in the prairies of Canada.  They sponsored one of the drives.  Bela, the drive organizer, is a stamper too.  She is a Close to My Heart Hostess, which is a home-based stamping business (like Stampin' Up! and others).

The red journals are embossed with the raised part of the design inked in red.  I mailed these off on the weekend.  Bela is in Oshawa, a city north of Toronto.  She makes regular drop offs to Sick Kids Hospital throughout the year.  She has a dedicated crew of cardmakers, and I have been watching for almost a year.  It feels good to have finally made something to contribute!

Gray is still Foxy!

My husband complains that the grey sneaking in to his hair ages him.  I say it makes him more distinguished and, no, I’m not just saying it.  I mean it!  If you think back to caveman days, men who were brash, irresponsible, unskilled or just plain stupid died young.  It makes sense that, in the eyes of women, men ripen with age.  Besides, being upset over grey hair is better than being upset over no hair!  Despite his silver streaks, my husband’s hair is still thick and soft.  My fingers don’t care what colour it is!

I made this card for him.  His birthday is Halloween.  He saw the card already (somehow), so it's not a surprise anymore.  It's still blank inside, so the poem I'll have to come up with will be the surprise.

Now, is it the same for women?  Not really.  Even using caveman logic: younger women bear children; older women don’t.  Greying on a lady is not as acceptable in our society (thanks a lot, media!).  Grey on a lady can still look good in my books if the hair still has a smooth texture, although the more uniform the colour, the better.  It’s the transition period between gray and vibrant colour that is tough.  Just like growing out your bangs: the in-between stage is horrific.  Bangs or no bangs is okay.  All grey or no gray is okay.  In-between looks frazzled.  Sigh, what’s a girl to do?

Dog Mini Album for Charity Auction

Speaking of Dogs animal rescue (in Toronto) will be hosting it's online charity auction in November 2011.  I have created a new mini album this year to donate to the auction.  (You can see some of last year's donated album in an older post.) This mini album has a total of 24-26 spaces for photos and journaling.

I started with the chipboard cover using a digital stamp that I hand coloured.  The dog stamp is "Rustic Kolar" from K'n K Designs and the papers are largely from the American Crafts "City Park" collection plus some scraps I had around.

There are two pull out tags which can have a photo on one side and journaling on the back.

There is also an accordion page (my first!).  I had trouble figuring out how to close it.  I wanted to use this paw print ribbon I snagged from the closing of Scrapalicious (my local scrapbook store), but it's too thick to tie.  I dug around my crafty stuff and found some Velcro dots, so I cut them down and used those.  It worked fairly well, I think.

Since the album is bound by jump rings, owners can add their own pages at any time or re-arrange the page order.

I'm no mini-album expert.  I may try to simplify the process by choosing a few layouts and repeating them with different papers or by choosing a uniform colour scheme.  I still have a lot of room to experiment!

I hope my album helps generate some well-deserved funds for the canines and their volunteers!

Calico Kitty

Just a very quick post today.  Someone had commented on my kitty in the window card post about seeing my die cut kitty in calico colours.  I thought I had one, but I couldn't find it.  So, I made a new one.  I made this one a wee bit smaller than the one I had before.  The original size was large for scrapbook pages but this one would do well on a card.  (That's where it's likely going to end up anyway!)

Hope you like it!  (His snout almost looks like a big bushy moustache!)

Plus, since it's Halloween month, here's a version of just the silhouette on a pumpking that I made last year: