Festive and Frosty

Good morning fellow LOTV fans (and other fans too!) here's another Christmas card to add to the pile, the Merry Christmas Penguins in all their cute and adorable glory. 

I tried something a bit different when coloring these cuties, instead of using black Copics, I used dark browns. I didn't think it would work, but guess what?! It looks great! I chose the dark browns hoping it would coordinate a bit with the background papers, and I am very pleased with the result. Who'd a thunk...

The papers are actually a digital collection from SEI called Alpine Frost. It was out years ago and I LOVED it and was in a panic when I ran out. Boy was I relieved to see I could still get it in digital format and use whenever I wanted forever and ever and ever! I wish ALL paper companies would do this, it would save me all that hoarding I do because I never want to run out! Pay attention paper companies, I need to make space on my dining room for actual eating, not paper crafting so can you digitize all your paper collections pleeeease?! I have hundreds of GB on my Google drive, but no GB on my dining room table, lol!

ahhh well, I tried.
Have a great weekend everyone!

Follow your Dreams

Hello again friends, Lili of the Valley has done it again with another release scheduled for next month. Something new and different, with beautiful little Japanese themed images. I'm so happy, they're so lovely!

The cherry blossom branches are a cut file from The Silhouette Store, I scratched some texture into them with my paper piercer. The flowers are the smallest flower from the Martha Stewart Hydrangea punch that I shaped with my embossing stylus on a foam mat. The butterfly is also from the Silhouette Store.

Background paper is 'Meadowlark' from a Prima paper pad. 

So what do you think of the little Geishas? Wait till you see the rest of them, there are accessory stamps, sentiment stamps to complete the whole line. I'm in love...

Thanks for visiting!

Autumn Bounty

Well now that the cooler weather is upon us, I am thinking all things Autumn. The trees are already showing the slightest signs of turning colors, which makes me feel excited and a bit sad at the same time. In a couple of weeks I plan on just taking a scenic drive with maybe a picnic lunch and drive the country roads until I find a beautiful spot to enjoy the colors. 

In the meantime, I've created a card to reflect my mood...

I love the way the embossed background came out, it almost looks like tooled leather. This was done using an impression plate rather than an embossing folder. Lighter impression but much finer lines and detail.

Thanks for peeking in on my blog, have a great weekend!

Trim-trim-trimeree and a bit of insanity...

Good morning blog friends! I just want to say how thankful I am for all the lovely comments in response to my post the other day. I have to admit I was a bit worried that everyone would just disappear and blogging would become a thing of the past for me. But apparently, there are a lot of wonderful, understanding readers out there that inspire me to keep going! So I'm not going to stress over not posting every few days, and I will just enjoy my hobby and share my love of stamping when I can. I love interacting with my fellow stampers, so if you have questions, or just want to chit chat, feel free to email me using the link in my right sidebar. I answer every email!

On to my card today. This kind of card normally would take me 2 or 3 hours to create, from coloring to assembling the final layout. This time, I worked on it sporadically for three days, probably more like 5 or 6 hours. I don't know why. I can't seem to get into my usual 'groove'. I hem, and haw and try one thing, try something else because I don't like it, etc.

See the background paper? That was a bit of insanity, lol. I got it into my head I HAD to have a diamond background cut file for my Cameo, couldn't find one I liked for sale, so I embarked on making my own. Mind you, I'm not an expert at designing cut files, actually this is the first time I've done one I liked completely from scratch. It.took.me.forever... and a day. 

The second bit of insanity is the fact that I cut the diamonds from four different kinds of paper, so I had a PILE of tiny little diamond cut-outs to poke out. Actually, most of them came out easily, although there were a couple of sticky ones that fought me. THEN I assembled all the different patterned diamonds in the red paper background, kind of like a puzzle. Kind of therapeutic actually.

A lot of work I didn't really intend to do. I envisioned the diamonds would be bigger, resulting in less 'puzzling' LOL! Needless to say I'm working on a redesign of this cut file. If you want this version, email me and I'd be happy to send it to you. I only have a Silhouette Studio version, like I said, I'm a beginner at this sort of thing and have no idea to convert to different file types. 

Anyway, I colored 'Trimming the Tree' with my Copics and some colored pencils. I made the medallion flower using several strips of edge punched patterned paper that I scored every 1/4" and folded up, then flattened. I used a dab of hot glue to hold it all together. There are tons of tutorials on the web how to make them.
I added a tiny tag to the gold bow using one of the stamps from the 'Christmas Sentiment Tags' set. I like that the tags are a really easy shape to cut out with my trusty old scissors. No die needed. A punch might be nice though...
Or a cut file...I wonder if I could manage it? I'll let you know in 6 months, lol, that's how long it might take me to figure it out! 
Any Cameo experts out there care to give it a go? ;-)

Thanks for visiting!

Autumn Roses

Hello friends! I think I'm going to be slowing down on the blogging for a while, I'm feeling a bit burnt out. It's been almost 4.5 years of faithful blogging and it's getting harder and harder to do it regularly. I'm going to take it easy for a while, see what happens.

I haven't felt like coloring much either lately, so it's back to simple color stamping for me. I like these multi step roses from Papertrey Ink.

Rust colored roses and Autumn colors. I love Autumn colors!

I know most of you are here to see my colored cards, and I will keep posting my Lili of the Valley projects, but I'm also doing other things that I love. Which could be a CAS card, or a 'no coloring' card. This hobby is something I do to make me happy, help me relax, and release some of my creative energy, and I share what I love to do. I hope you'll stick with me, but if not, I understand.

Take care!

String Tie Envelope Box

Good morning blog friends, it's been a long, long week. I struggled with lack of motivation for blogging, I have several bare bones posts sitting in my 'Drafts' folder, taunting me, but I had no desire to write them up and publish them. Actually, I had a couple of projects done, but didn't feel like setting up my light tent, taking pictures, editing, etc. etc. I've been working longer hours so I can carpool with Jimmy and save a big chunk of cash on gas, but it's really cramping my crafting time. And when I can't do my thing, I get grumpy, and tired, and overwhelmed. sigh...

Thanks for letting me vent, I'm done now. Here's a cute project I made using a Silhouette Store digital template for my Cameo. 

How adorable is this string tie box with little string tie envelopes? Something a little different from a traditional Christmas card. This would be perfect for sending Grandma the kid's school photos, you could attach them to the little inserts.

I just made little ATC sized cards with some Lili of the Valley stamps this time. I used 'Christmas Star', 'Set 33- Christmas Grungy Messages' and the tag is from 'Set 32'.

The papers are from the 'Classic Christmas' paper pad new to the LOTV store. 

I embellished the box with some paper 'greenery'. The pine boughs are a Cheery Lynn die, if I remember correctly. The pine cone is also made from paper, cut on my Cameo using an awesome set from SVG Cuts. I dabbed on some white Acrylic paint to the tips of the pine cone and greenery for a snowy effect. 

I love making 3D projects, and they're so much easier to make using my Cameo!

Thanks for visiting!