Mrs Corn Posts: Reporting to you from the field...

Miss Canary came to Boston this weekend for a visit and included a stop at the Paper-Source in Brookline in her itinerary. The store was holding their annual wedding workshop complete with demonstrations and refreshments.

Miss Toucan and I, never ones to miss an opportunity for free cake (not to mention the opportunity to meet Miss Canary in person), took it upon ourselves to meet up at the store as well.

The event was very well organized and we all had a great time. In fact, there were so many great things to share about this event that I am breaking this into three posts. I also took lots of pictures for all of you out there who could not attend. Enjoy!

At one of the 'stations' they were demonstrating how to make a save-the-date from start to finish. They included the printing process (more on that in a later post), how to emboss a design and how to assemble everything right down to a label on the front of the envelope.

Elsewhere in the store, Miss Canary was getting an order for letterpressed cards filled. The lucky bird apparently won the raffle from last year's event!!

One of the many great things about Paper Source, is that they have access to a bazillion different designs AND they have sheets to show you what each type of print looks like in each color ink they offer on each type and color of paper! It is so helpful to get to see it in person!

After watching the demonstration on how to make a Save-the-Date, Miss Toucan and I headed over to the 'Make and Take' table where we had a hands-on tutorial on how to use embossing powder to make favor boxes even more special!

Here is Toucan with her favor box template.

We stamped a pattern onto the favor boxes using Versamark ink. The ink itself is clear, but when applied to paper, it is a shade darker than the paper you are working with. It is great for watermarking effects. In this case, we used it so that we could adhere the embossing powder to the ink.

Here I am with the magical embossing gun. It is a bit like a hair dryer, in that its main function is to blow hot air**, however it runs at a higher heat with a lower fan setting. You can actually see the embossing powder transform as you use it. I swear to you it was the most amazing thing!! We were addicted.

Below is the best picture we got that really shows how the powder changes to a gel-like substance right before your eyes.

Um...yeah...far be it from me to ever get in the way of Miss Toucan and her embossing tool!!

After the embossing fun, we took a white gel pen and made itty-bitty, tiny little dots in the centers of the flowers that were in the stamp pattern.

I handed that tedious task to Miss Canary who was back from her paper-ordering adventure in the other part of the store.

Here is Toucan with her (mostly) finished product...
And Miss Canary...
The final steps were to fold up the boxes and attach them with white brads so they would stay together. Then we tied a chocolate brown ribbon around them for a finishing touch.

Soooooo pretty. Of course, my favorite part was Miss Toucan's face as I mentioned to her during the tedious process of dotting all of the little flowers that it was all fun and games until you had 200 of these to make the night before your wedding!