Hello Everyone! Are you ready for a new week? It’s Monday and although it is gray outside with a light drizzle, I am in happy spirits over the Patriot’s win yesterday. It was a real nail-biter for sure. But they managed to secure a win to head to the Superbowl.
I can’t believe January is rolling by so quickly but it has been a good month and the forecast for the next seven days predicts mostly mild temps for this time of year. I’ll take it.
I managed to stop by the comic book store with my son this weekend and pick up a few more comics to help me with my reading challenge. The great thing is that Newbury Comics where we buy most of our comics, has a dollar section and I have found great selections to choose from without spending a lot. At the end of the month, I will share with you the four comics I read.
I also wanted to share with you some new products that have caught my eyes (not my wallet … yet!) – click on the image to see more details:
Carta Bella Paper – Flora No 2 Collection – 12 x 12 Collection
I am loving the color combination, floral patterns and the lovely sayings on their ephemera.
Pebbles – TeaLightful Collection – Ephemera
Oh boy, I can’t tell you how much I love this tea inspired ephemera from Pebbles. You all know how much I love tea and often products only represent coffee. so this one has to be owned by me for sure. Look at the cute teacup.
We R Memory Keepers – Dial Trimmer
I’m sort of a We R Memory Keepers tool collector. I love their tools and this one sounds fantastic. You use one cutter and can create a multitude of decorative edges. Hmmm. might have to add this one to my stash.
Well, I am off to get some work completed for the day but I hope you have a blessed day!
Belinda
Flowers are a love of mine and I was thinking about them over the holidays. Throughout the spring and summer, I frequently share photos from around my garden of my lovely flowers. During the winter months, I wait for my indoor flowering which occurs in a very short period of time. I have quite a few and a Christmas cactuses and several orchids. Then when they are done showing off, I buy cut flowers and vase them throughout my home.
So I got to thinking and I thought of a new series I would like to share with you called Friday’s Flowers where I will use my trusty Silhouette and cut out and make paper flowers. I will aim to post these at least two Fridays a month and best case, every Friday.
So our first beauty is called an Evening Primrose. I first bought a primrose over 11 years ago. I was shopping with my mother and I saw it’s vibrant colors and the rough foliage and fell for them. I was happy to hear that they were one of the first flowers to bloom in the winter. Because that is the time of year, that I start to get anxious for the heat to return so my flowers will come back. I placed some in my tree ring in my side-yard and they did come up as planned but I just didn’t think they were good for that location aesthetically. So I pulled them out. I never bought more but still find them pretty to look at.
This cut file is for the yellow variety but I really liked the rare blue evening primrose. The contrast is amazing. I tried to recreate the colors with my cardstock and Silhouette.
Now that I look at this image from the internet, I think I will chalk the edges of the petals to create even more of a likeness.
Well if you visited recently you might have heard about the 
Here is a peek at my first comic I read last week is a comic I bought at the most recent Comic-con from the author and illustrator. I even got their signature. I will be back later this month to share more about this comic and the other three comics I select.
I am really starting to love my colored pencils and I have only scratched the surface. I took the plunge last year and bought the 72 pencil set of Prismacolor Pencils and haven’t looked back. I even decided to challenge myself to use the coloring books I was buying and hoarding in my craft room. I challenged my sister and mother-in-law to color one picture a week and then we send each other pictures when we finish. I found coloring in them helped me a lot when I was stressing watching football each Sunday. So that became a day I could squeeze in some coloring.
As my collection of pencils grew, I started to get frustrated with the provided storage. I also had an adorable elephant bag where I began collecting my pencils. But when it came time to color, I spent too much time digging around to find the colors I wanted and I also found that I spilled them out of the tin on a regular basis. Aarggh…
Enter Amazon…my go-to for researching and often purchasing products. I saw so many options but I didn’t want to spend a lot of money. But I wanted something pretty (you know me!). So 
I liked this case because it can hold up to 168 pencils and it had a handle to carry it. As a crafter, we need any help we can get to transport our stuff to craft sessions is a major plus. I also like that it has 4 different sections separated by zippers. I can open one or all and easily access my stuff. 
The great thing is that I organized them in order of my color chart so I will always know where to find my colors. Every color has a place and it corresponds to the chart. 
I put it to use and colored up an image in one of my coloring books and it made the process so much fun and no stress about finding colors made it go by smoothly.
Now I can focus on exploring techniques and filling my coloring books with color!