love at first sight

Yesterday was literally the first time I have ever touched a Copic marker. As I suspected, I instantly had a separated-at-birth moment! I took an all-day workshop with Jenn at Colorful Creations on Main Street in Hyannis (Cape Cod, MA). Even if it wasn't my only LSS, I would still think it was the best LSS in the world! They recently had their 11th birthday, but somehow - I still can't believe it! - I only discovered them a couple months ago. So this was my first class - and now I can't wait to take more! They also have a studio you can "rent" and use all their stamps and dies and oh my word it's amazing. :)

Here's a little sample of what we did in the class:

The photos aren't great, but I think I did pretty well! BUT... are you ready for the ironic twist in this love story? I came home and realized I don't own any stamps that I would potentially want to color! What?! So my plan is to start saving my extra pennies, and in the meantime, head over to Colorful Creations and pillage their amazing wall of stamps. That way I can just stamp a bunch of images to color at home and use on cards in the future.

Now, if that wasn't enough, I have another new love! Introducing... Echo Park Paper! They're a new company that I just discovered, and their first collection - Sweet Summertime - is AMAZING! (Check out their facebook page for other fans' creations!) I read that their goal is to release a new collection monthly. Sounds like a tall order but I hope it's true! I ordered a few of their papers, as well as the elements stickers, just to try out the collection. Needless to say I quickly went back for the rest... it's in the mail :)

One thing I really like about the collection is that they mix white and ivory. One of my first thoughts about the collection was that it had a lot of similarities with October Afternoon's recent collections (Thrift Shop and Fly a Kite), but OA uses ivory as it's base color. So I was thrilled to see that Echo Park mixed the two because it makes it coordinate with practically any other manufacturer. 

Here's my first Sweet Summertime project:

I LOVE the pinwheels! More to come soon!