Happy Birthday, Mom!

Well, my mom's birthday was February 11th, and she did receive all of these items in time. I made her a card with new embossing folders, a note card set with my favorite new die which makes a quilt inlay, and made a stationary box for the first time following the easy directions in this video by crafting4fun247. I added washi tape to add stength. 

--LJE

Pet Condolence Cards

I've had to make so many of these lately I bought a special pet condolence stamp set. :-( Let's hope I don't use it often. 

--LJE

Three Birthday Cards

Here are three birthday cards made for three special guys in the last three months. 

--LJE 

Some Just Because Cards and a Bookmark

I had some new supplies and went for it. 

--LJE

Gummy Bears Cards

Well...I guess I've fallen into cute stamps, but I so love the idea of stamping and coloring or cutting out brightly colored zoomorphic candy! 

--LJE

New Wreath for a New Year

I had this idea that pattern paper behind foam die cut windows could be like wallpaper. 

--LJE

Border Stamp Layering

I had been waiting to use this prayer stamp since October. The new layering stamps finally gave me inspiration!

--LJE

Bird Stamp Layering

What did I want for Christmas? Stamp layering sets!

--LJE

Happy Anniversary to Me AND/OR What have I been doing for two months?

Dearest Readers, 

What have I been doing for two months? Quite a lot, actually! However, you wouldn't know that because I haven't posted anything. Honestly, I don't have a great excuse. My computer hasn't been working that well, and frankly, I've been busy and more content to make art than post pictures of it. However, I know you guys have been missing my posts because the internet told me so:

Thanks, internet! I got two of these, and boy, did that make me feel lazy!

Aside from my lack of posting, tomorrow is also a special day for me. It's the one year anniversary of the day I officially quit drawing my comic and devoted myself to paper art. I finally let go to just go with the flow and see where paper crafting took me. And you know what? It so hasn't gone the direction I imagined it would...

I thought it would be this:

But, it turned out to be more this:

These cards from January are some of my first attempts at stamp layering, and I present them here as this post's new content. I am right now uploading everything else I've been working on and will be posting everything in the next few weeks, so stay tuned! 

As you know, this has been a wonderful and winding journey for me, and I thank you all for being here with me--even when I disappear for two months. The most amazing and fascinating thing to me is that I never ever thought I would fall so utterly in love with card making. I think I was keeping this idea of doing some sort of high brow Matisse homage art, but then I let go again because I ADORE making cards. I'm also, in my opinion, not too terrible at it. I have execution issues all the time, but designing cards just feels natural to me. I think one of the reasons I love it so much is because I like to give gifts so much. I like to make people happy, and this way I can create and brighten someone's day in a small way. It truly fits with my personality. 

Happy Anniversary to me--what will next year look like? I'm sorry there's no tea party this year, but I'm sure my insular guests understand...

--LJE

Commission: Vintage Collage Style

I made these cards with the instructions that the recipient likes vintage, cats, music, and gardens. Some of these got a little off the rails (is that phrase really applicable to cards?), but I think I kind of love these! 

--LJE