Good morning! Tracy here today for 3-D Thursday.  Today I made a simple box and added some seed packets in it.

The box was made using an 8 1/2 x 11″ piece of heavy cardstock. I then scored the longer side at 3 1/2″ then flipped it and scored it again at 3 1/2 inches. The shorter side was also scored at 3  1/2 inches and 7  1/2 inches. Crease all the sides. Cut  four slits to make “flaps” and then adhere it together.

I used the Farmer Girl Pure Innocence set from My Favorite things along with the  fence die. I also stamped the fence with a woodgrain stamp.  They aren’t available in the  Markerpop store just yet, but you could totally use the Corn Maze PI for the same effect.

I Love how her jeans came out. I know some people use colorless blender and a pair of jeans but I find that it bleeds sometime. So I just colored it and took my B37 and very lightly drew in lines going both ways to give them some texture.  I also paper pieced the boots.

The copic colors I used are as follows:

Hair: E21, E23, E25, E29
Skin: E000, E00, E21, E11, R20
Jeans: B32, B34, B37, B39
Shirt: R00, R01, R02, R05
Hay: Y11, Y14, E33
Pig: R11, R12
A lot of the dark shading was done with a pastel pencil.

Thanks for stopping by today

Tracy Valure

Good morning. Tracy here today.  I have shared my love of reading on here before but since I’m always reading something new, I am going back to it. I’m always looking for new books to read and I thought maybe you might be too. I am an active member of Goodreads, you can find me HERE if you are on it! If you have never heard of it, it’s basically an online community that you can see, share and write reviews of books. Alot of the authors are on it too and they will interact as well.

Years ago I would only read Murder Mystery type books. I was so stuck on Mary Higgins Clark and I would only branch out to other types of books like hers thinking I wouldn’t like anything else. Until one day I was walking in Target and a book cover stopped me, it was called Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster.  She also wrote, Bitter is the New Black.  I read the back and it reminded me of myself so much that I bought it.  This was a totally different type of read for me. It’s Jen Lancaster “memoirs” and it was HiLARIOUS! I loved it and I ended up picking up all her books after that.  She is fabulous and funny.

After that I started branching out to other types of books.  There are so many choices now to read that I get overwhelmed! So I thought I would post some of what I am reading and maybe it will give you some ideas. In return in the comments please share what you are reading or anything that you have read in the past that you recommend!

I just finished Night Road by Kristin Hannah. Loved this book but I should warn you it’s a real tearjerker! I think it wins the award for most crying from me.  Without giving it away, it’s about a protective Mother and a young girl, who was bounced around the foster sytem until she comes to live with her aunt, and their stuggles when a tragic accident happens. It was a great story and I would also recommend another book of hers, Firefly Lane. It reminded me of the movie Beaches.

I’m not sure what has gotten into me normally I try not to read any really emotional books back to back…but I did!  This is an older book but I just got around to reading.  I’m not even sure how to describe it without giving it away.  It’s about 2 young adults whose families have lived near each other for years. They grew up together and eventually become romantically involved. Something happens to change the course and one of them commits suicide. The rest of the book is about the other defending themself in court.

In my current reading I have also read a couple of up and coming authors. Sometimes one of them surprises you and Colleen Hoover did that. I loved Slammed and couldn’t wait to read the second one. I am eagerly waiting for the 3rd part to this story to come out soon.

One of Colleens recent books that I also read was Hopeless. Loved it and again, I am excited about the next one to be released.  I should warn you theses books are borderline Young Adult. The content isn’t cheesy though its real problems.

Thanks for coming by today and have a great one!

Tracy Valure

Good morning! Tracy here today. It’s tuesday so that means I will be showing some tips and tricks. This week I thought I would demonstrate paperpiecing. I LOVE this technique. Especially for a large image like the one that I will be using. You don’t have as much coloring to do and just need to do a bit of shading on the patterned paper.  I find that 6×6 paper pads are the best to use for this because of the size of the patterns.

First you want to stamp you image onto your paper of choice. I used Uptown Girls Bianca Loves Her Big Cake by Stamping Bella. These are large images and are fantastic for paperpiecing!

Notice when I stamped the image part of the dress did not stamp out.  I didn’t restamp it or fill it in because the dress is what I plan to paper piece and you won’t even see that.

Reink up your image. I don’t ink the entire image, I just usually try to get it on the area that I need to stamp out only.  That way I am also not wasting other portions of my patterned paper.

Stamp you image onto the patterned paper of choice. As I said before, small patterns are best.

Before you cut out the image, do you shading and highlighting.  You can do this after you cut, but I find it easier to do it beforehand.

Cut out the dress.

Color ALL of your image and then add your paper pieced dress LAST. Otherwise you may have problems getting the ink in areas close by or shading those areas.  After you image is all colored glue down your paper pieced item.

Here is the final image all colored and put together.

The other supplies that I used were:

Patterned paper – Fabulous by Simple Stories
Sentiment – Bold Sentiments (Bday) by SP & Company
Image – Uptown Girl Bianca Loves her Big Cake
Cardstock – Candy Bar and Candy Necklace by Bazzill Cardshoppe Cardstock

Thanks for stopping by!

Tracy Valure

Good morning! Tracy here today.  So did you all enjoy the Markerpop/Tiddly Inks blog hop yesterday? I sure do hope so, there were some amazing creations to see so if you didn’t get a chance to hop….you should!!!

Today I have a card using one of the Big Time Anyas called Anya Treats. I love these girls and I am so happy to see that some new ones were recently released and in the shop!  I definitely need to get my hands on those too!  I adore Anya Treats. I am a huge baker so anything with cupcakes, cookies, cakes, chocolates…sweets in general I HAVE TO HAVE!

I also happen to love the style of this one. The Bohi Chic look to her is simply adorable.  The Copic Colors that I used today are:

Pink: RV10, R81, R83, R85
Black: W4, W6, W7, W9
Yellow: Y11, Y15, E33

I also used some of my favorite paper by Fancy Pants. Love their designs.  As always, I used my Bazzill Cardshoppe Cardstock, Candy Hearts, for my base.

Thanks for coming by today and don’t  forget to hop with us and Tiddly Inks!

Tracy Valure