Meticulosity

• On a piece of white cardstock, I stamped a Tea Love image from Unity Stamp Company with Memories Black India Ink. I colored the image using my favorite pinks from Stabilo, Stampin' Up and Distress Markers .And those  2 little prints near the word "tea" were colored with my fingerprint after pressing it onto a pink ink pad.. Below the image I placed a piece of Pastel Welcome Words Washi from Recollections. 
• The Awareness Ribbon stamp ( and die ) are by Amuse Studio. I stamped the ribbon once then die-cut the image and also die-cut a piece of DCWV Watercolor Stack cardstock. That stack is gorgeous with many sheets having a touch of gold foil.They were both placed above the stamped image.
• Pink sequins were scattered throughout the stamped image. A hint of green was used on a tea cup to signify growth because having been through a cancer diagnosis ( mine is Thyroid ), I can tell you that the process includes growth as a person, as a patient, as a survivor.. 
• A piece of contrasting pink paper with sweet little hearts from the Hello Love collection by Crate Paper was placed on the pink card base at an angle. The completed stamped  image was then popped up  ( using Dimensionals ) on top of that paper, also at an angle. I am very OCD about getting images, cardstock etc. straight on a project so I place many images, cardstock etc.  at an angle to allow me to create with just a bit less stress !!

Yes, that is exactly what it says -- I { HEART } Books !!  Apart from my absolute love of card-making, I am also quite fond of books. From the time I was a child and would walk to the library with my dad, I have had a fascination with books. Growing up in a very small town, we knew everyone, and the town librarian was a friend of our family. After I had read all of the children's books in the library, my father wrote out a permission slip for me to be able to take out any book that I wanted. Miss Faust kept it in my file so I never had a problem. I remember going through the card catalog alphabetically and just finding topics of interest, then taking many books home on that 1 subject. That was in the days before computers when we relied on the Dewey Decimal system  ( now I am really showing my age ).. More info on that at the end of my post of you are interested.

So where am I going with this, you might ask ?? Well, with a love of books comes a love of bookmarks. I have used the occasional slip of paper to mark a page  ( have never been one to dog-ear a book !! ). In the past, I have even cross-stitched bookmarks for myself and as gifts. But lately I have been seeing these cute ones made from envelopes and just had to give it a try.



Any book-lover MUST get this amazing book that is an alphabetized reading list that I refer to often. Nancy Pearl is an American librarian and author who shares her love and knowledge of books with all of us. And isn't my cute owl just perfect in that corner !!



I used the Going Wild stamp set by Susan K Weckesser co-branded with Unity Stamp Company. After stamping the images with Susan K Weckesser's  Clearsnap Colorbox Color POP Dye ink in Mystery , I colored them with a variety of markers ( Distress, Stabilo and Stampin' Up ). I fussy-cut them and applied Ranger Glossy Accents ( if you don't own this, you need to run right out with a coupon and buy some ).. On the owl, I applied the Glossy Accents to the glasses. There are also a few strips of feather washi on the back of this bookmark.



The fox image also came from the Going Wild stamp set. I added a strip of grass washi to the bottom of this bookmark, then gave this cute little fox a cup of coffee cut from a fabulous roll of Paper Studio washi. A few cups were also placed on the back of this bookmark along with a favorite stamp of mine from Paper Angel. Glossy Accents were applied to the ears, paws and polka-dots on the bow tie. The fox and owl were adhered using my TOMBOW Mono Aqua Liquid Glue -- my bookmarks get lots of wear and tear and TOMBOW is my go-to adhesive !!



For those of you as OCD as I am, and who could not just cut a corner off of an envelope to make these bookmarks -- this is how I made mine. I used a 5 x 7 Kraft envelope because the Kraft paper is sturdier. On the bottom corners of the envelope, on each side I measured 3 inches in, made a dot with a pencil, then drew a straight line connecting the 2 dots. I then cut across the line and erased any pencil marks that remained. Use your imagination to create any kind of bookmark that you want !!

I hope that you enjoyed hearing about my other LOVE- Books !! I love all kinds of books and finally did get a nook which now has about 1000 books and samples on it. I still love the feel of a "real" book in my hands but also love the ability to have so many choices with me at one time.

My current reading list includes :
1. The Fireman - Stephen King
2. The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend - Katarina Bivald
3. Packing for Mars - Mary Roach
4. Collage Playground - Kimberly Santiago
5. The Woman in Cabin 10 - Ruth Ware

And for those of you who have never seen how I used to find my way around a library, here are a few pics. Now I wish I had a card catalog like that for my craft supplies !!

The gals at Mountain Plains Crafters never need a reason to color but with National Coloring Book Day being celebrated on August 2, we decided to share our ceations with you. Check out our blog HERE to see all of our projects.

There has been much in the news lately about the benefits of coloring.. I think that creative people have known this all along !! I have been coloring since childhood and still to this day, you can find me coloring at a local coffee shop or on my lunch break at work..

For these coloring projects , I used Adornit's Hello & Love You ArtPlay Paintables. These are fun designs by Lindsay Waltman-Ostrom, printed on amazing watercolor paper that can be used with your favorite markers, colored pencils etc..

Supplies for these 2 Art Play projects were : Faber Castell PITT Artist pens, Tim Holtz Ranger Distress markers, Wink of Stella Brush in Clear Glitter, Stabilo pens & We R Memory Keepers Sequin Stickers. I also used some Yasutomo metallic watercolors for the green on the shirt.. It is SO shimmery !!!