Fabulous Friends Friday - Sale-a-Bration's Last Hurrah!

Happy Friday!!!  Hope you are having a wonderful day!  I have a couple fabulous cards from a couple of my amazingly artistic friends to share with you today!  These are both cards made with Sale-a-Bration items -- and today is the last day you can get those!!!  

Marlene created this fun window card with the Hey Chick Stamp set:

And, this beauty was created by Judy-Ann, using the Carried Away Designer Series Paper from Sale-a-Bration and coordinating Lift Me Up stamp set, plus a heart from the Sunshine Wishes Thinlits (that's the piece from the center of the heart die), and Stitched Shapes Framelits:

Thanks so much for visiting!

- Michelle

Hostess Tea Photos -- Part 2 (Oh So Succulent Favor Baskets)

Hello!  Hope you are having a great day!  Have lots of photos to share with you today!  These are of the favors I created for my 11th Annual Hostess Tea the Sunday before last.  I created baskets using the Window Box Thinlits Die and kraft cardstock, stamped with the Hardwood Background stamp.  (I got the idea for how to split the Window Box die cuts to create the basket from this pin).  Then, I created a bunch of succulents with the Oh So Succulent Bundle and a variety of In Color Card stock to decorate the baskets, and make each a little different from the others:

For inside the baskets, I bundled a chocolate and some tea bags, and tied them with ribbon, then added a charm and a "Thanks" tag to the bow:

The charms were fun to make using shrink plastic, stamped with Stazon and colored with Watercolor Pencils.  I stamped and cut bunnies from the Basket Bunch Bundle for most of the charms, though did make a few with the Chase Your Dreams and Hey Chick sets as well.  Here's a side-by-side comparison of the image before and after shrinking:

Whew!  That was a lot of photos!  Hope you enjoyed them!  

Thanks for visiting my blog!

- Michelle

Hostess Tea Photos - Part 1!

Happy Monday!  Popping in to quickly share a few photos from my 11th Annual Hostess Tea with you!  This is one of my favorite events - so fun to plan surprises to say thank you to a wonderful group of stamping friends!

Here are a few photos of the food (after the party - forgot to take a before!), flowers and main card sample display:

And, we had two make and takes.  The first is one I designed using a number of Sale-a-Bration stamp sets -- the So Very Much, Avant Garden, and Delicate Details sets, to be exact.  We used Peekaboo Peach, Watermelon Wonder and Mint Macaron for the stamping.  And, a Metal Rimmed Pearl for an accent.

 The second make and take was scrap-lifted from Artisan Allison Okamitsu (you can see her beautiful originals here).  I changed the dimensions of the stamped layer and its bordering layer slightly, but thought it was a fabulous way to show off the Sale-a-Bration Glimmer Paper (which sadly sold out way to soon!) and the Make a Medallion set (still available, but only until the end of March!):

While finishing up my extra kits after the party, I decided to stamp some coordinating envelopes, too.  Here's how those turned out:

 Thanks so much for visiting my blog!

- Michelle

SUper Friends Saturday: March Sampler and Card Swap!

Happy Saturday!  Well, this has been one of those weeks where I didn't get to blog because life got busy . . . even though I have so much to share with you!  Life is still busy, but I wanted to be sure to pop in and share the latest SUper Friends Swap and since I missed getting a "Fabulous Friends Friday" post in this week, we'll just do it as a SUper Friends Saturday!  :)

This month's swap had two parts.  Everyone created either one or two 3x3 cards for an Easter-themed sampler.  We agreed to use the colors from the Sale-a-Bration Glimmer Paper Pack (sadly, already sold out!) -- Sweet Sugarplum, Mint Macaron, and Bermuda Bay.  Here's how those turned out:

Jana created this beautiful 3x3 featuring a basket of wonderfully-colored spring flowers (stamped and die cut with the Basket Bunch Bundle) and a gingham pattern from the Succulent Garden Designer Series Paper:

Jana also created this elegant and sparkly piece with the Sale-a-Bration Glimmer Paper, Stylish Stems Framelits Dies, and Succulent Garden Ribbon:

For her 3x3, Judy-Ann also used the Basket Bunch Bundle, and cleverly used one of the eggs to hide the seam where she joined the grass!  The eggs have an ornate top layer cut out of the Sale-a-Bration Glimmer Paper, and a solid layer underneath cut out of the coordinating card stock (love the effect!):

I think you'll agree the Basket Bunch Bundle was a popular choice in this swap!  Margery also used it in making both her adorable swap cards.  For this one she made "peeps" bunnies in our theme colors:

For her second card, Margery also used the chick and bunny ears from the Little Cuties Stamp Set:

Don't you love her coloring?!

Nancy cleverly used her Balloon Bouquet Punch to create some eggs, which she stamped, and then "hid" in some grass she cut with Fringe Scissors:

For her lovely sampler piece, Agnes also used the Basket Bunch Bundle to create a basket filled with ornate eggs:

I created two pieces for the swap, and in the first one, I also used the Basket Bunch Bundle to create some grass for a giant egg, which I cut with one of the Layering Ovals Framelits out of some paper I'd created using the Shaving Cream marbling technique.  I cut a belly band for the egg using the Sweet Sugarplum Sale-a-Bration Glimmer Paper and the Flourish Thinlits.  The flower is cut using the Botanical Builder Framelits from Whisper White Card Stock, then sponged with Sweet Sugarplum all over and Rich Razzleberry on the edges, Gold Wink of Stella in the center and Clear Wink of Stella for the rest.  There's a Brights Enamel circle for the center.  The little leaves are from the Detailed Floral Thinlits.  The butterfly is from the Papillon Potpourri stamp set, punched with the Bitty Butterfly Punch:

For my second piece, I started with a piece of the Mint Macaron Glimmer Paper for the base, layered a Mint Macaron piece die cut with the Sunburst Thinlits on that.  The lilies are from the Easter Message stamp set, embossed in copper on Mint Macaron, fussy cut, lilies bleached white, then colored with Peekaboo Peach in the center after the bleach dried.  The leaves are colored with Mint Macaron Stampin' Write Marker.  I added a bit of Copper Metallic Thread behind them and splattered the background with Gold Wink of Stella.  The greeting is also from Easter Message, embossed on Vellum:

The second part of our swap was a full-size card swap.  For that, Margery created this super-fun card with the Hey Chick Sale-a-Bration set chickens.  It doesn't show up well in my photo, but there's actually wonderful dimension to these chickens!  The background is stamped with the Hardwood Stamp Set:

Nancy's card shows off the Time of Year hostess stamp set and most of the 2016-18 In Colors:

And, my swap cards were created with most of the same materials (Make a Medallion and Delicate Details Sale-a-Bration sets, Endless Birthday Wishes embossed in white, Flourish Thinlits and Flower Fair Framelits for the die cut border and flowers, an In Color Enamel dot, and a combination of 2015-17 and 2016-18 In Colors for card stocks and inks), but each came out a bit different:

Whew!  That was a long post!  Thanks for staying with me through it and for visiting my blog!  And, a big thanks to the SUper Friends for creating such amazing projects and letting me share them here!!!

Stay tuned for photos from hostess tea . . . hopefully coming tomorrow!

- Michelle