New Easter dress

Thank you, Grandma Kathy, for the beautiful and lovingly made dress for Natalie! She loves it, it fits her perfectly, and I can't wait to debut this handmade treasure at church (and probably everywhere we go for the next several weeks -- Natalie tends to practically live in her most loved dresses).




And here's a recent photo of Natalie and Naomi hanging out. I have been playing with my brother's hand-me-down digital Canon Rebel camera. I love its heft and the richness it brings to each shot.

Welcome my mom to the blog realm!

My mom's life is in process of taking a turn for the creative, and she's invited me to join her artful journey. She's decided to learn the ropes of the online community, including blogging and running an Etsy shop. I've gladly offered to help in any way possible ... and yesterday we launched her blog!

Give my mom a warm welcome at Color, Cut, and Paste! I'm very proud of her and excited to help share and sell her amazing craft creations.

She hopes to launch her Etsy shop in the next couple months, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, I've dusted off my brother's hand-me-down digital Canon Rebel camera and have been practicing with backdrops, props, and lighting. I have hopes of sprucing up my own product photography and taking photos of items for my mom's shop.

Here's a peek behind the scenes:

My mom's cigar box purse was one of the first things I photographed with the new (to me) digital camera. I placed the box upon a vintage suitcase in front of a goldenrod-colored blanket suspended from hooks in the ceiling. Everything is situated in front of the window in my craft room for delicious afternoon light.



I played around with using the branches to support the jewelry my mom makes and plans to sell on Etsy. We were both happy with the initial results...

Clothespin fairies

In February, Natalie, Naomi, and I painted some clothespin fairies for an afternoon craft time together. I die-cut the butterfly wings out of embossed Grungeboard and attached them with hot-melt glue. I also used the hot glue to attach the pipe-cleaner arms. We then painted and glittered the fairies to our hearts' content.








These two fairies were Valentine's gifts for our friends.


Natalie, age 4, painted this one for herself. She is named Leaf-Leaf and has fun flying around the house and making guest appearances in Natalie's dollhouse.


Naomi, age 18 months, painted this one all by herself. Natalie named this fairy Paint-Paint.