I Was Brave

I made a few more Marci girls and Shrink Dinks as well. I was brave and posted these Marci on La-La Land Crafts' Facebook and held my breath. I needn't have worried, I received such wonderfully encouraging responses, the first one from the Irina Blount, the one who created these adorable stamps!

That site is loaded with Copic marker artists, which I'm not, I only have one Copic marker and it's a clear blending one. I thought I'd get silently laughed off the site, but most said they were very impressed with the paper-piecing I do and even inspired a few to give it a go. It made my day.

New Dies!
Dawn and I spotted these dies, specifically the inkwell and quill, a while ago and she's been scoping out auctions for a good price. The lowest she found usually ended around $17, until now!

She sent me an auction for one up for $9.99 and I won it for that. AN-DUH! The same seller had the scroll as well and I won that as well. Go, us!

Shrinky Dinks & More

I miniaturized one of my La-La Land Crafts Marci stamps! Not puffing my chest, but I think she's adorable! It was time-consuming, but so are the regular-sized ones. The important thing is I had fun making them.

Alcohol-based permanent markers are key to success with non-porous surfaces. I don't own any of the cost-prohibitive Copic Markers (that's a lie, I have one, a blender), I pulled out my Sharpies and a little brown Staz-On ink w/paint brush for her hair. They worked great, I just need to borrow a few more colors from my daughter next time.

I placed rhinestones on her shoes and pony tails, and tied a little bow at her waist with two strands of pink thread. I added a coat of Glossy Accents to her hair to give her some depth. I'm thinking of making a pin out of her and maybe putting a hole at the top the head for necklace if I make another one.

My sister commissioned me to make a thank you card for a friend with brown hair. This is what I came up with.

I made the little bench from a piece of balsa wood, no die, from scratch! I tickled with how it turned out.

I even made a matching envelope! My sister loved it. She texted me today and said she had it out by her computer so she could admire it before giving it away. I love her so much.

Made A Few More Cards

I so enjoyed making these little girls from the Marci rubber stamp line from La-La Land Crafts. I finally got around to putting them on cards. It's nice to have them all ready to go for any occasion that might arise, last-minute or otherwise.

The one above is my favorite. I used the fence die Valerie gave me. I'd like to do more with this die, it's so whimsical.

For a few of these I started with store-bought cards Dawn gave me and embellished them. The strawberry girl below sports a tiny strawberry I fussy-cut and then popped it up after coating it with Glossy Accents.

This last one was made with layers of different colored card stock on top of a blank note card decorated with hearts. A strip of LOVE Washi tape (that stuff is addicting!) is along the bottom and heart Washi tape was added next to the little girl. I drew white stitch lines between each layer of card stock for a little something extra.

My daughters surprised me with a bunch of new little girl stamps and other crafty things like glass-fusing products for the microwave kiln I got for Christmas (I haven't tried yet) and some of the most awesome 12"x12" card stock I've ever laid my eyes on.

I can't wait to play with it all!