I believe that life should be lived in full color, and that's one of my favorite parts of summer: all the bright, vibrant colors everywhere. Pink mimosa blossoms on dark green leaves, yellow floats in aqua pools, candy-colored ice cream... And living in the South, everyone seems to be wearing vivid pink and coral nail polishes, luminous Lilly Pulitzer-style prints, and vintage-style sunglasses in the most wonderful colors. I've also had lemon-yellow goldfinches and pastel bluebirds outside my studio window recently, so it looks like everyone is in on the trend!

It's no secret that I'm a huge Disney fan, with Mary Poppins being one of my all-time favorite movies. Mostly for the Jolly Holiday scene with the penguins, let's be honest. So, in anticipation of my master's graduation trip (oh yeah, I graduated!) at the end of this month, I put together a very simple papercutting featuring a very happy penguin and colorful Mickey balloons.

I think that happy colors are incredibly powerful: they have the power to lift us up when we're feeling blue (ha, color pun!), inspire us, and encourage us to reclaim some of the great joy of childhood. That's probably one of my favorite parts of Disney: their incredible use of color and their embrasure of the unabashed wonder of childhood.

And while we're on the topic of happy colors, how about these tropical love birds? I must admit, I'm generally not terribly fond of birds (except owls), but I do love looking at pictures of brightly colored tropical birds. I mean, just look at those feathers, June!

This cute little pair of love birds is for one of my newest papercuttings that will feature a whole mess of tropical birdies. I've never really painted/cut out birds before (except owls), so this is a fun experiment! (And if you can't tell, I really like owls, although they are generally not colorful.)

My boyfriend and I recently took a trip to the zoo and I was awestruck by the feathers of all the tropical birds. While I couldn't get good pictures of the smaller whippersnappers, I did manage a nice shot of this flamingo's lovely feathers. What beautiful texture! If only I could get my hair that color...