A little weekend baking

Hello! I hope you had a good weekend. It had been a little while since I baked anything, so this weekend I decided to bring out the spatula and turn on the oven. I tried out a new recipe {to me} found on All Recipes. It was pretty simple, though the recipe did call for 2 1/3 cup of mashed bananas, which was more than I expected. If you do try it make sure you have a full bunch of bananas!

Happy Friday + DIY Father's Day Card

Hello and Happy Friday! I woke up this morning to beautiful sunshine in Vancouver. It's been awhile since I've had the light shine in through my window like that, despite it being June!

Sunday is Father's Day, and being someone who designs greeting cards for a living, I wanted to make something special for my dad. So, here's a little DIY hand-made card project I created. {Instructions below}. It's pretty simple and the part I love most about it is that you can customize it to suit your dad's style. It can also be used for a birthday card, graduation, pretty much any occasion for a guy!

I hope you enjoy this project! If you happen to create this for your dad, send a link back with some pics. Would love to see the cards!

This card when finished and folded is a standard 4.25" x 5.5" size.
You'll need a few supplies:
4.25" x 10" cardstock (colour of your choice)
Scissors
Ruler
Buttons
Glue
Pencil & Eraser
Bone folder (optional)

1. Before folding, I drew some guidelines in with pencil
(as per the measurements pictured above)
2. To create the shirt collar, fold the top edges to the centre
(which should be 2.125")
3. Fold up the cardstock so that the bottom edge reaches the tip points of the collar. Draw guidelines.
4. Cut lines at angle to reach those guidelines.
5. Erase those guidelines you made in pencil.
6. Tuck bottom edge into those cuts and voila, your shirt is done!
7. Here's the fun part: Add buttons, a side pocket, whatever you want to customize the card.
Oh, and don't forget to write a special note inside!

Enjoy!
Val

Happy Friday + Colour Blocks

Lately I've been focusing on the business side of things and haven't really had a chance to design. I realized yesterday that I've been missing it... ALOT... and feeling rather drained. So to get ideas flowing, I created a few colour blocks for inspiration. I'm hoping to create some designs based on these palettes...Will see what happens! I hope you have a wonderful weekend to rest, create and rejuvenate.

Happy Weekend + Father's Day Cards

I woke up yesterday morning finding it hard to believe that it's June already! Perhaps it's the rainy grey weather that's still hanging on in Vancouver. To kick off the weekend I'd like to share my Father's Day cards with you! There's still plenty of time to shop for Dad! You can find the cards in my online shop HERE.
Happy shopping and happy weekend!

a little r&r...

With so many things on the "to do" list sometimes and limited hours in the day, I think our minds just need a bit of a recharge sometimes. Thank goodness for weekends! It's the May long weekend here in Canada (bonus!), and after a busy week I'm definitely looking forward to spending some time just relaxing, meeting up with friends, and just relaxing...Did I say that twice? Happy (long) weekend!

Holiday Show 2012!

I'll admit, it feels a bit weird to be talking about the holidays in May, but in the retail world, this is when holiday buying starts. I was recently in Seattle at the Whole Foods Pacific Northwest Holiday Show. It was great to finally meet and chat with other vendors whose products I've seen around the store! Here are just a few pics from that day.

p.s. The holiday collection of cards will be uploaded to my online shop a bit later this year, but if your store is interested in carrying my cards, please contact me here.

Friday's Thought

As I'm sitting here at my desk on a Friday morning, this random thought popped into my head. I feel truly fortunate and very blessed to be doing what I love everyday, but there are aspects of my work that I really don't like. On this morning's to do list, was one of those not so fun projects. Have a Happy Friday and hopefully there aren't too many of those to dos on your list before the weekend!