Happy Llama Trails To You!

Good morning! I hope the week has been treating you well so far. Today I'm sharing a couple projects made with three dies from the new Llamas and Botanicals collection from CottageCutz. This release contains thirteen new dies full of llamas, cacti and beautiful traditional birds and fauna. If you haven't noticed, Llamas, cacti and desert images are very popular right now and of course The Scrapping Cottage has lived up to the challenge with some adorable images in that theme in this release. Please check all the new dies out at the store. They are 25% off for a limited time so head on over to make your selections if you love llamas and the desert trends!

There are many beautiful traditional bird and fauna dies too in this collection so there's sure to be something you like. In fact, here is a card I made for the CottageCutz blog that features the traditional Dogwood branch. I used watercolor and shaped the flowers and leaves. I cut a window in the front of the A2 sized card and placed the die cut on the plain white card stock inside. I like the dramatic difference in colors. It sorta makes my heart skip a beat the same way it does when I notice the first flowers of the season bloom in all their glory!

So getting back to the llama, I chose to feature the Traveling Llama die with all his luggage and cute jaunty hat at the top of his load. I can't say I understand the llama trend completely but I can tell you I've fallen in love with this little character. He is so cute and detailed with all his colorful bags, saddle and harnesses. I want to reach out and give him a hug!

To give the llama more dimension I put a layer of foam tape under his saddle and the three bags. The middle blue case is on two layers of foam tape which gives the impression that it provides a platform for the final bag. To give him motion, I used an action wobble so that he trots as he goes on his merry way. He's a traveling llama after all!

To enhance the desert look, I used the Potted Cactus die cuts on both the front and inside of the card for extra fun. The cactus images are also very cute and easy to put together. I chose not to use the pots for them since the idea was that the llama was traveling and that means cactus in the ground, not in pots.

Please visit the CottageCutz YouTube channel to see this little llama in action! I show the coloring and how to piece these dies together which is helpful if you're not sure where all the pieces go. You can either click on THIS LINK or click on the video thumbnail below.