Oh, Canada! Paper Garden Contest

I was lucky enough to receive a wonderful paper pack from Tiffany at the Paper Garden filled with red and white papers to celebrate Canada Day and to enter her Canada Day Card Challenge! There are prizes - including the all important maple syrup!!  (I'm entering but don't vote for me!)  The Sign-Up page is here.  You can see the submissions here.

I was really curious what papers would cut on the Silhouette Cameo, so I used her papers for this week's submissions to the Silhouette Design Store.  I'm delighted to say that all the papers cut very well, even the very heavy Curious Metallic Red Lacquer.

So here are this week's red and white Canada Day projects!

 The Canada Day Accordion card or Decoration Silhouette cutting file can be found here on the Silhouette Design store.

I used the Paper Garden's
Aura Scarlett Linen Cover Weight Cardstock (which has a wonderful linen texture)
Aura Solar White Cover Weight Cardstock





The  Maple Leaf / Canada Day card appears like the one on the left on the Silhouette site, but the file includes a white panel should you wish to use it.  Silhouette wants pure white backgrounds to their photos, so the card with the white panel would have disappeared!  I used the gorgeous Curious Metallic Red Lacquer for this card and used blade depth 7 and a double cut.  It cut beautifully.  If you click on the image for a closer look, you might see the metallic shine.

The last Canada Day project this week is the Canada Day BBQ Decorations.  It includes a bottle tag (yes!  go ahead, use it on a wine bottle - a wine bottle was too tall for my photo!), a flameless votive wrap and a wrapper for your utensils and napkins.  If you make the votive wrapper bigger it could be a crown(!) or table or cake decoration.  For these I used Basis Red and Aura Solar White.

For our American friends, I also design a 4th of July BBQ set. You might want to change the colours around.  Again, because of the white background requirement, I had to use blue for the main shapes!  I wanted to use white!  :-(







Thanks for  having a look today!  Don't forget to enter the Paper Garden's Canada Day Card Challenge.  As well as cardstock (LOVE those metallics!) they carry envelopes, favour boxes, ribbon and more!

Happy Canada Day! I guess I should send these to my sweet younger son.  He arrived 22 years ago inside Burnaby Hospital with fireworks at the same time as the fireworks outside on Canada Day!
Smiles, Suzanne

Oh, Canada! New Cutting Files on the Silhouette Online Store

Happy early Canada Day! 
To help you celebrate, here are some timely cutting files!  As with any cutting file, you can alter the size or only use part of the design.

 That maple leaf was perfectly placed so I didn't have to worry about whether you were a Canadien or a Canadian!  But if you're reading this, you're probably Canadienne!
Pick and choose your phrase!
I am Canadi*n
Je suis Canadi*n
Je suis Canadi*nne
You can find I am Canadian on the Silhouette Online Store here.

Here is another that you can split up should the need arise!

 You may find Canada, eh? on the Silhouette Online Store here.

Here is a cutting file that had no end of uses!
Instructions: Open file and ungroup once. Cut six large pennants from red, six medium pennants from white and two each of the smaller pennants from red. Cut one of each C, N, D and three As from white. Assemble as shown. Add additional layered maple leaves as desired. Fold back scored tabs on largest pennants and glue down, leaving room to thread a ribbon or cord across the back. Hang it on your mantle, in your window or make a big one for your game or party!
They don't all have to be red and you can mix and match the smaller pennants however you wish.  You may find the CANADA cutting file on the Silhouette Online Store here.

 

 Have a safe and happy holiday! 
Thanks for stopping in.
Suzanne

Demystifying Pointed Pen Flourishing

If you're a newbie to pointed pen flourishing and wish to know more, you should you should run, not walk to a workshop taught by Heather Held.

(My apologies to Heather for this less than flattering photo of her - but at least you'll recognize her when you meet her!  I was so busy creating marks on paper, the last thing I thought of was taking the perfect portrait!)

Just watching Heather work is one of the best ways to learn.

All these photos are from the second day. The first day was letterforms.  It was good Copperplate practice time which was much needed!!  I now have some insight into the differences between Copperplate and Spencerian.  I'm definitely a Copperplate girl.

The heart of the flourishing we learned from Heather was the Universal Line of Beauty which you can see below.

 From there we learned this basic cartouche and then it was all about embellishing that basic cartouche.

 

 

You can see how Heather turns her paper every which way.  What a scary concept for me!  And I almost died not using a guard sheet.  To me, it's like driving without a seatbelt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got exactly what I needed from Day 2 of Heather's workshop. You can stare and admire pointed pen flourishing in old books and reproductions till the cows come home and that's where it stays. In the books! Not one person in that workshop had a piece of flourishing they couldn't be proud of.

It was amazing.

Heather Held is a very calligraphically determined person. It's obvious from the moment she begins teaching that pointed pen is her passion. 

Near the end of the second day we began working on coloured paper with Dr. Martin's Bleedproof White.  The trick is getting the consistency of the gouache just right for the nib you're using!

 

Then we graduated to adding colour...  This is Heather's work, of course.

 

 

 

 

And lastly, I'll share a couple of my own things.  I threw out *a lot* of practice pages.

I just want to acknowledge Christiane for ruining my life by introducing me to the Esterbrook 357 vintage nib which is no longer made.  I hope I can make this nib last forever.

 

Yes, that should be Esterbrook!

 

I haven't had so much calligraphic fun since the pigs ate grandma (as the saying goes) thanks to Heather! 

We'll all be able to recognize work by Heather's students.  Just look for that basic cartouche. See it? vbg.

 

Thanks to the Fairbank Calligraphy Society in Victoria for hosting Heather's workshop and thank *you* for stopping by and reading!

Suzanne

 

Heather Held is a Canadian calligrapher and you can be inspired by visiting her website here.