A Little Wild - It's a lot adorable!

I've really been neglecting my blog for a long time!  I'll try to be better about it but things are changing around my house so I can't make any solid promises.  Part of my excuse is that I spent some time in the hospital after getting a tick borne illness called ehrlichia.  It was a horrible illness and I strongly advise against getting it.  I've never been so sick in my life.  I actually wanted to just go ahead and die by the 3rd day.  Then I went to the hospital and was there 6 more days.  I feel better physically but my brain is still a bit confused so I've just been trying to take it as easy as I can while it heals.

In the mean time, the new Stampin' Up Annual Catalog came out and my very favorite stamp set is one called A Little Wild.  I have found a bit of time to play with the set so I have some cards and a scrapbook layout to feature on today's blog post.  The stamp set is designed to be small tags, perfect for birthday and baby shower gifts.  But they can be stamped and used with just the front of the animals like this card.  I stamped them on watercolor paper and used the new watercolor pencils to color them in.  Obviously, I need a lot more practice with water coloring!  I used Pacific Point cardstock to brighten it up some and the Woodland Embossing Folder to add dimension to the background.

For this card I stamped the animals on colored cardstock, Pink Pirouette, Soft Sky and So Saffron.  I had the backs left over from the scrapbook layout I did so I used them on this card.  The bear and lion can look "over their shoulder" but I couldn't position the elephant's head to look right that way.  For this card I only have the lion looking back.  The cute flowers, grass and bees also come from this set as well as the hello there honey bear sentiment.  I drew the box around it with my Basic Black Stampin' Write marker.

I took a TON of pictures at my granddaughter's first birthday party.  I haven't gotten them developed yet but I thought the adorable animals from the A Little Wild set would be perfect for the scrapbook pages of this special event.  I like the colors and most of the patterns in the Coffee Break DSP even though I don't drink coffee.  Shoot, I can't even stand the smell of it!  I have to hold my breath if I walk down the coffee aisle at the store.  I used Soft Sky 12 X 12 cardstock for the background and Pear Pizzaz double matted on Soft Suede for the photo mats.  The swoops on the borders were created using Kiwi Lane templates.  The little thin swoop on the title box was a narrow piece that was between the two borders that looked too cool to throw away.  The little crate at the bottom is from a fun new thinlit set called Wood Crate Framelits.  I stamped it with the large Hardwood stamp to make it look realistic.  This layout was a lot of fun, I can't wait to get the pictures printed out and on the pages!

So, there you have it, I'm doing well and still in business.  If you love any of these products you can order them from my website or download the newest catalogs and look through them for all the latest Stampin' Up stamps, papers and trims.  And there are lots of fun new framelits too!

The new Holiday Mini Catalog is live now too, check it out when you are ready for your Fall and Christmas projects, there are some irresistible new stamp sets! 

 www.elainestamps.stampinup.net