Stationery Scoop

Now arriving: 1000 lbs of scrap

Late Monday afternoon, this arrived for making into plantable seed paper:

Time for a plantable thanksgiving

All the signs of Fall are here - pumpkins in the field, orange accents in textiles and cardstock, red apples and crunchy leaves. We've stocked up on Plantable Thanksgiving Cards for our shop and for our corporate clients. I love how some businesses have started sending Thanksgiving Cards instead of Holiday Cards, using the opportunity to thank their clients for their business. And the plantable Thanksgiving Cards seem very appropriate symbol for "business blooming and growing".

Kick it creative

 

It's a weekend jam-packed with creative endeavors, just as a weekend should be. The way I see it...Monday to Friday are for serious thinking and planning, Saturday and Sunday are for letting loose creatively.

Last night, I joined my monthly crafty crew for scrapbooking, cross-stitching, painting, and [in my case] knitting. Here's the project that I'm working on, a tuque for my eldest daughter. Here's the link to download the free pattern. I knit for so many hours that one finger went numb. I guess when I go for it, I really go for it!

Today, I assembled a play tent and crawling tunning for my girls. Thank you Ikea for coming up with great play toys that FRUSTRATE THE PARENTS when trying to assemble it. According to my Kolbe profile, I have lots of energy for fact-finding, and limited energy for assembling and building. Gee, you think? Happily, the kids are now outside, in the tent, in an imaginary, far-away land. Perfect.

 

And to keep us going through the afternoon, we're diving into this book How To Draw Dinosaurs. There should be enough variety to satisfy the T-rex lovers and the velociraptor fans in my family.

Next week is my 500th post, so stay tuned for something exciting!

Fall veggies and new paper

I'm up bright and early on this Friday morning, attending day 2 of a 3-day seminar. Lucky me, the seminar is here in Winnipeg, so I didn't have to travel far (15 minutes from home!) to get there. Here's a pic of the beautiful vegetables that were delivered last night to my house - nothing like fall tomatoes for the perfect toasted tomato sandwich.

At Botanical PaperWorks, we're switching all of our white cardstock over to a new paper called Endeavour Recycled. It's been manufactured for over 20 years, prints with wonderful quality, and has a number of outstanding eco properties including being FSC certified, acid-free, chlorine-free and it contains 50% recycled content (25% post-consumer). Read more about it here.

These Botanical PaperWorks products will now be produced with Endeavour Recycled:

• Plantable Holiday Flat Cards
• Holiday Expressions Cards
• Butterfly in Flight Favors
• Share and Blossom Favors

Did you get yesterday's email of Fresh Ideas Monthly? That's Botanical PaperWorks' monthly newsletter, and you can subscribe here.

I'm off now - hope you have a great day...the weekend is almost here!

cool people we know

In our business, we have the privilege of interacting with many interesting people. Here are a three clients and friends who WOW us with their creativity and drive.

Couture Tees

In a post called Plantable hang tag? It's seed paper!, client Ciara Elend shows off her new plantable, seeded hang tags. Go to Ciara's website here and check out the pictures of celebrities wearing her couture tees and tanks. Another must-see: her election tees for the American election.

Drumming Papermaker

Ever wondered what a papermaker does after dark? Phoebe Man, papermaker extraordinaire at Botanical PaperWorks is also a taiko drummer. Recently, Phoebe got together with two other artists in a pre-arranged jam session and recorded this song Something Is Kind Of Amiss (click on "Week 15" to open the tab).

Cool Kid's Designer

A chance chat on the playground resulted in my meeting this talented entrepreneur and graphic designer, Holly Clarke. Her company, Small Potatoes, designs and produces baby clothes and accessories. One of my favorite quotes on her site is for a Nursing Cover - "Because baby's feeding time shouldn't be a peep show for Uncle Earl". Hah! How many women have felt like that before! You can stay up-to-date by reading Holly's blog.

Green Signature Holiday Gift List

[click for large image]

We've just posted the 2008 Green Signature Holiday Gift List, filled with plantable gifts - cards, calendars, journals and more. All embedded with seeds, all designed by artist Kal Barteski, all perfect for gift-giving. You can read our latest press release called Gift Artists Going Green for Holidays by clicking here: press_release_holiday_cards.pdf. Also, check out the press we've been getting; we'll be in Lou Lou magazine in November!

Also in November, we'll be starting a Holiday Countdown with special promotions and draws, so be sure to bookmark us and join the celebration.

Read this - musegreen.com

Thanks to Meredith of Musegreen.com for blogging about our plantable invitations recently in a post called Wildflower Power. It was good to read of her experience shopping for and working with plantable paper, and to read that Botanical PaperWorks stands tall within the industry. We listen closely to our clients and appreciate when we receive feedback - it encourages us, and helps us serve you better!

 

At my desk

It's Monday afternoon and don't you love it that computers can take pictures? Thanks, iMac! Here's me with some recent client work.

What was in those boxes?

John and I finally tore open the boxes finally this weekend and yes indeed, inside were the two pieces of art that we purchased in August during our trip to Quebec. And here is the unveiling.....

and for the hallway, a piece that measures 40 x 40 and is SUPER HEAVY...

It was an art-full weekend with jewelry-making with my daughter on Sunday afternoon and some sketching and color pencil drawing on Friday night. How wonderful to use the right side of my brain for a bit. And today is completely wide open - nothing scheduled, just glorious time to delve into some long-awaited projects. If you need to talk to me, you'll be able to get me on the phone today, so feel free to call! Have a great day!

Plant the paper...what do you get?

These.
[click for a close-up]