Guest Blogger, Leah l'Orange

It's our pleasure to introduce the talented Leah! We are sure you are going to enjoy her fun personality, excitement for life, and creative projects. If you just can't wait, hop over to her blog, The Chronicles of Orange. Remember, she will be here all next week so stop by each day for something new!

Helloooooo, and HAPPY HOLIDAYS! I've been so excited for this day, and it's FINALLY here! I'm Leah, and I'm SEI's Guest Blogger for the week!

Thank you so very much for having me, SEI; it's an absolute honor to be hanging out here with all of you on the SEI Lifestyle blog - I have had a wonderful time preparing for my visit, and I'll be sharing some fun goodies over the next few days, with a happy little something for one lucky crafter at the end of the week.

I'm relatively new to the blogging (and papercrafting) world, but once I started playing with paper, I realized that there's simply no turning back! You can find me yammering away merrily at my Blogger home, The Chronicles of Orange, but I'm kind of all over the place! I'm a founding Design Dollie, and I design for Some Odd Girl Digital Stamps, Charisma Cardz Challenges, Make it Crafty, and NVS Girls, as well as being a staffer at Scrapbook News and Review. There is just so much beautiful product and inspiration out there, I find it hard to concentrate on just one aspect of papercrafting, so I like to dabble and get my feet wet wherever I can... And that's exactly what brought me here!

I'll be hanging out on the SEI Lifestyle Blog all of next week, so hopefully you'll drop by and enjoy a little visit with me and my newest pal, Kris Kringle! Oh, and the very sweet Jocelyn might be making an appearance, too, but Kris has been ESPECIALLY anxious to get to know you all, so be prepared!

Before Kris and I kick things off on Monday, here's an example of what kind of fun I've been having with the gorgeous SEI products. For this project, I started off with a plain bi-fold frame and covered it with papers from the stunning Lovebirds collection, with a side of beautiful CLOUD Velvet Paper (plus brown cardstock and blue bling from my stash):

Here's a look at the simply embellished inside:

And look how beautifully these papers PUNCH!

If you're a thrifty kind of crafter, you don't need to buy a lot of embellishments to make the perfect accents for your projects! In fact, if you don't own any punches, you could easily cut these flowers by hand for a funkier, artsy effect, and it would still look beautiful! What could coordinate better than using scraps from the actual paper you've used to cover your project?!

These frames are so much fun to alter, and wouldn't they make perfect gifts for friends, family, bridesmaids, coworkers? I may have to pick up a few more for some special occasions coming up!

Well that's my prelude to a week of Guest Blogging for SEI Lifestyle, so enjoy your weekend, fellow crafty friends, and come back Monday to say hi!