Pretty Peonies!

Hello my friends and Happy July to you all!  I'm baaaaaaaaaaaackkkk!  I had to be dragged back from my most favorite place on earth but it's good to be home, hee hee!  We had a fabulous vacation--the weather was PERFECT and it was even cooler in SC than it was here in VA!  It sure was nice to not have a schedule, not worrying about the to-do list and just sit back & relax!  I couldn't have asked for a better time with my family that's for sure!  I would have posted more last week but realized when I got down to SC I realized I forgot to take pics of some of my projects before I left, LOL!  So I'll be sharing those this week with ya'll!

I also read A LOT of books (15 in total, hee hee)--I read at the pool, the beach and every evening when everyone is sleeping so I can read a bunch in that time.  I'll share a few with you everyday that I really enjoyed along with a slideshow of pictures that I'll spread over a couple of days, because I also have A LOT of pictures to share too!  I've got pics of Savannah, the beach and Daufuskie Island, SC too!

Some Fabulous Books I read while on vacation:  The Art of Keeping Secrets, When Light Breaks & Driftwood Summer all by Patti Callahan Henry (if you like Karen White & Pat Conroy--these are a great combo of both); Beachcombers by Nancy Thayer; and The Language of Sand by Ellen Block!  ALL excellent! (Patti Callahan Henry is one of my new fave authors, I read ALL of her books while on vacay thanks to my handy-dandy Kindle, hee hee)

Slideshow #1 (4th of July and beach pics):

NewsBitz:

-Long Post below, but read carefully for a chance at some very DELISH Candy!  The last blog candy winner will be posted tomorrow!

-My Summer Special at the Online Copic Classroom "Color Me Creative" is still running thru the end of July!  Take any 2 Copic classes and get $10 refunded to you; take all 4 copic classes and get $20 refunded to you!  Refer a friend to get a great deal and if they sign up (let me know their name beforehand via email) you get $5 in referral bucks!  ALSO pre-registering this week will be new CRICUT CLASSES (intermediate/advanced & project oriented)--so look for those too!

-SCACD's DT has a new challenge on Monday's called "Make a Mess Monday" and it's all about gettin' messy & dirty with your crafting and having fun!  Susana's store has some new "messy fun" products in stock and we're gonna show you how to use 'em!  So stop by the store blog HERE to see the first challenge and join in!

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Pretty Peonies

This project I whipped up yesterday after playing catch up with the mounds of mail and emails that piled up while I was away, hee hee!  I also had lots of new goodies that came while I was away so I bust some out of their packaging and put them to good use!  This is a NEW cutie pie called "Tilda with Peony" from the Wedding Collection at Magnolia-licious!  I kept the color palette simple with tones of white, cream and pale yellow!

The patterned paper that I used here is Webster's Pages "Lullaby Lane/Life's Portrait" paper pack--such pretty patterns in this, love it!  That fabbo cream colored frame is from a pack by Pink Paislee called "Artisan Elements" (see here)--they are kinda rubbery/vinyl feeling and are sticky on the back, really pretty & fun to use!  You can paint them, glitter them & distress them if you want too--I left mine plain!  The pretty yellow scrolls were made with some NEW Marianne Design dies that just came in at my pal Nikki's store HERE (I used the Frame Circle)--I love them and so easy to use!  And then I added a few roses from Wild Orchid Crafts on the left corner to finish it off---soft, pretty & elegant!

This cutie (Tilda with Peony from Magnolia-licious) was colored with my fave Copics (yellow: Y11,Y00,Y0000/hair: E25/E31/E50) and to tone down the yellow I bit I colored over the dark yellow with E51 to make it more buttery colored to match the tones in the papers!  And she got a bit of bling by putting stardust stickles on her dress bow, trim and peony petals.  Her shoes got a coat of diamond glaze to make them nice white patent leather shoes!

DELISH CANDY TIME:  Want to win this Magnolia stamp, a package of Pink Paislee frames and a copy of the Magnolia magazine "Midsummer Nights Dream"?  Let me know "what your favorite summertime dessert is" by leaving a comment on this post only by this Friday and one of you will be a lucky winner!!

See ya tomorrow!