Oh, how I love paper!
I don't even know when it started but even since I remember I love everything to do with paper. From handwritten letters, to photographs and books and notebooks. Then, I'd start buying / hoarding paper, like, just because its pretty colours or interesting textures or cool patterns. I've tried to craft my way with paper too, from book binding, notebook making, to collages, to pompoms to piñatas, definitely an eclectic mix but it all for my love for paper. It's been years since I keep a drawer unit full of paper (told you, I'm a paper hoarder) and is always the best when I get to use it!
All this to tell you a story: This summer we spent a week in Nova Scotia, a place that has the effect of filling me with inspiration. This time it was not the exception. One day, Amelia and I visited the Public Library and Amelia got into herself to play in the computers. While I was sitting, defeated in the fact that she wasn't in the mood to check out books with me but just play games, my eye caught the cover of this book that had colourful flowers on it. I lunged to grab it immediately, like a hungry person being offered a box of warm donuts and my, oh my it was love at first sight. I could feel the sparkle coming out of my eyes and heart in that very moment. The book is called From paper to Petal and if you like paper or flowers, gawd, you NEED to see it. After hungrily finishing it all in one afternoon I went straight out to the nearest Omer DeSerres (for those outside Canada, it's a art supply shop)completely set on getting crepe paper and all the supplies I'd need to start making paper flowers. Alas, it was a bit disappointing to find out this shop doesn't carry much interesting stuff for paper flower-making but, hey, what's Etsy and Amazon for, right? I made my first order of crepe paper that same day, eager to receive it and start making!
Once I got all my supplies and made my first flower, I knew I was hooked. I felt like paper had a bigger purpose in life now and that I had found it! Total revelation. Ever since, I've been dedicating a few hours a day to make flowers and beside finding it immensely rewarding, it's also a relaxing and calming activity, which is something that benefits me greatly.
So, all this to tell you that after starting making these flowers I knew I had to find more ways to put them to use and share them with everybody and the idea of making holiday cards came up. Next, I invite you to see a few photos of the process, from flower making to photography. I hope you enjoy it!
It was really fun to make all the flowers, practising my -poor- calligraphy skills and do paper cuts for the words. Then the photoshot was great and then the editing and looking forward to the final result after so many weeks of working on this project! Then the graphic design part wasn't going that well (I suck at it) but then I had lots of help when Christen Strang jumped in to save the day and helped me get ready for printing! Thank you so much girl! So as you can see, a long but very cool process.
If you'd like to see more about the finished cards, visit my previous blog post or simply visit my shop! Thank you so much for your support!
Iveth
