Studio Calico: Far Far Away Kit Cards

These were two of my favorite stamp sets from Studio Calico, and I'm so happy I finally dug them out and put them to use!  The fruit set was from one of their kits: Far Far Away and the cactus set was from  Life.Love.Paper set that is no longer available (shucks! It's so cute!)

The fruit cards were stamped, colored with Copics, fussy cut and adhered with pop dots for dimension... and the houseplant was stamped directly onto the card using a masking technique.

I'll let you in on something: the little heart on the above pineapple wasn't planned!  It was a coloring error that I had to figure out how to correct!  I love happy accidents!  I may not have thought about adding the heart if it wasn't for that mistake, and I think it really brightens up the card!

Embrace your mistakes, and make the best out of them... they help your creativity grow!
Cheers,
Steph

Oh how I love these cute stamps!! -The Alley Way Stamps

One of my dirty little secrets is that I love to collect cardmaking stamps, even though I rarely make cards.  I always *think* I'll make cards, and I usually have some really cool ideas in my head about what cards I'll make and who I will send them to... and nothing.  

They collect dust in their neatly organized bins (Avery Elle pockets, labelled and sorted by manufacturer of course! ha!).

The exception to this cardmaking avoidance is the month of December when I'm making my Mom's Christmas gift.  Every year, she asks for a lot of handmade cards to give away to her friends.

So this year, I decided to finally put those dusty stamps to good use and spent the entire month making a few cards every other day.... here are the cards from The Alley Way Stamps.
(all three cards were colored with my Copic Markers)

**I kept this last one for myself, because I thought the image+sentiment together were HILARIOUS!  HAHA!  This one is being sent to a friend with a good sense of humour ;-)

Cards - TAWS Bird brain

I love the idea of making cards.  I can spend hours watching YouTube videos about making cards, and drooling over online card galleries.  I even have my own Pinterest board to ensure inspiration is at my fingertips!  I've even taken a Copics coloring online class to justify all of those yummy markers I have in my stash.  All of this, and I just can't seem to get the hang of it! 

Every single time I sit down to make a card, I draw a blank.  I don't know if it's the smaller canvas that intimidates me, or that my coloring doesn't ever look as nice as I would like it to look.  I'm not certain, but the creative struggle is real.  <grin>

However, it's that time of year when I attempt my hand at making a stash of cards for my Mom using my leftover scraps.  I dug out my stamps, markers and card stock and had a bit of fun last weekend.

This is my favorite card so far, mainly because of the cute little bird.  The stamps are by The Alley Way Stamps and the set is called "Bird Brain".

Am I the only one who struggles this much with cards?  Give me a 20x24 blank canvas and I don't even blink... but these tiny cards just mess with my head!  LOL

Hope you're all having a great week
Steph
xo