Relaaaaaax

Ok, it's official. My life is CRAZY! I took a new position at the bank in September and since then I live in St. Paul (MN) during the week and come home on the weekends. Fortunately (that word should be in caps and bolded now that I think about it), I have a wonderful friend who rents me the upper level of her house. I have a beautiful space to stamp with a big giant window, but the problem is, I leave early in the morning (so it's dark), and get home in the evening (and again it's dark), and then head for home on the weekends. I totally miss my Saturday stamping marathons! But, I spend my weekend time with DH and cooking (which I love to do too!) for the week when I'm home on the weekends. Hopefully, the house will sell and this can all be over soon. (ya, I'm not holding my breath either. lol)

So what do I do when life is crazy? I color. When I color I don't have to think. I don't have to push my already full brain to come up with a unique layout. I can just sit with my container of Copic markers and a few cute images and pretty soon I am in Happy Land.

The new Our Craft Lounge stamps are PERFECT for coloring (they were designed by Marianne Walker, the Copic Queen after all). I just love how the image is really the focus of these cards, not the paper or the layers or the 'bellies.

The first... Birthday Elle, is from the Lil' Pea-Nut set. I love how the lines in the stamp define where I need to put my shading! I used 3 different greys and added pink to her ears and adorable toes. The balloons are paper pieced, covered in Glossy Accents (Ranger), and attached with foam tape. The ground and sky are shaded using the Copic Airbrush System.

The second... Happy Day is from the Pat the Dog set. While I could have made it easy on myself and colored the heart, I decided to paper piece the heart so it matched the scallop frame. - cutting paper is a relaxation too! :o)

Both cards are made with My Minds Eye paper. Totally takes the work out of creating a card when I have papers that match! Don't you agree?