12th Annual Hostess Appreciation Tea Favors and Door Prizes!

Hello!!!  This past Sunday was my 12th Annual Hostess Appreciation Tea, and this is always one of my favorite events!  Each year I try to come up with some fancy food, creative make and takes and super-special favors and door prizes to show my love and gratitude to the friends who come and who have been such a wonderful support to my business over the past year(s).    

This year, I decided to decorate some mini coffee cups and fill them with tea and chocolates for the favors.  When I saw the wonderful products in the Tea Room Suite (pages 14-15 of the 2018-2019 Annual Catalog), I knew they'd be perfect to use for this tea party!  Here are the altered mini coffee cup treats I created:

I used the Tea Room Specialty Designer Papers for the cup wrap and belly band and for the smaller circle on the lid.  I used 1-1/4" and 1-3/8" circle punches to crop the pieces for the lid (just discovered the 1-3/8" circle punch is retired, but there is a current scalloped circle in that size that would be beautiful as well . . . in fact, I'm tempted to get it for next time I put some of these together . . . need to make sure I don't already have it first, though! ;) ).  The ribbon, holding a small charm, tied in a bow around the cup is from the Tea Room Ribbon Combo Pack.  The stamps and dies used to create the "label" on the cup are from the Time for Tea Photopolymer Bundle and Stitched Labels Framelits.  All the stamping was done with Blackberry Bliss Classic Ink.  The pearl in the flower center is from the Share What You Love Artisan Pearls, and the stickers on top of some of the lids are from the Tea Room Memories and More Card Pack.  

For door prizes, I decided to alter some of the fabulous Copper Tea tins from the Tea Room Suite.  I again used the Tea Room Specialty Designer Papers, ribbon from the Tea Room Ribbon Combo Pack, and stamps and dies from the Time for Tea Photopolymer Bundle.  This time, I also used the fabulous Tea Room Copper Vinyl Stickers!  I love how these are perfectly sized to fit the tins . . . it just takes two strips from the stickers to wrap around the tin lid (or could go around the tin, if you preferred instead).  The stickers also fit really beautifully in the die cuts and around the stamps from the Time for Tea Bundle.  Here's how the tins turned out, as well as the coordinating 3x3" note cards and envelopes I created to go inside them:

For the note cards and envelope liners, I used the Tea Room Specialty Designer Papers, along with dies from the Stitched Labels Framelits and stamps from the Time for Tea Photopolymer Bundle, Tabs for Everything stamp set ("wishes" and "enjoy"), and the Varied Vases stamp set ("thanks").  I didn't get photos, but I also added a small tin of tea in with the notecards.

Hope you enjoyed these!  (If you are in the U.S. and would like to purchase any of the products I used to create these, please click the links on the product names to visit my online store).

Thanks so much for visiting!

- Michelle

A Delightfully Detailed Pair of Thank Yous

I am really loving the Delightfully Detailed Specialty Paper!  You might remember that yesterday's card featured Delightfully Detailed Specialty Paper in combination with the Animal Expedition paper.  Well, today I have a pair of cards to show you that I created using the Delightfully Detailed paper as a stencil with Brusho.  

I should have taken photos of the process for creating these!  Basically, though, I cut out the section of the Delightfully Detailed paper that I wanted, then laid it over a piece of watercolor paper.  I sprinkled Yellow and Gamboge (orange) Brusho powder over the flower areas, then spritzed carefully with water (the Stampin' Spritzers work very well for this).  Next, I sprinkled the Moss Green Brusho on the foliage, and spritzed.  Here's how the two pieces came out:

I finished these pieces into two bright and happy thank you cards:

Both cards have Thick Whisper White card bases, then layers of Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie and the new Mango Melody card stock.  Greetings are stamped in Blackberry Bliss ink on pieces of Whisper White die cut with the Stitched Labels Framelits dies.  I also used the dreamy new Rich Razzleberry Velvet Ribbon on both cards.

Now for close ups of these cards!  Here's the one created with the negative image first:

On this one, I embossed the Daffodil Delight card stock with the Layered Leaves Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder.  The greeting is from the Enjoy Life Photopolymer set.

For the second card, I carefully attached the "stencil" piece using small dots of Tombo Multi in strategic spots on the back of it (another technique would have been to gently spong the Multi around the back of the piece, taking care not to shift the piece and get glue on the front in the process).  

You might notice a bit of stitching at the bottom of the Pumpkin Pie "frame" on this card -- I used a die from the Stitched Labels Framelits to create that.  The greeting is from the Varied Vases stamp set, and the little butterfly is from the Enjoy Life Photopolymer set.  The striped Rich Razzleberry and Blackberry Bliss strip of paper is from the Share What You Love Specialty Designer Series Paper.

I decorate the insides of the cards with some coordinating pieces of paper and more of the little butterflies from the Enjoy Life Photopolymer set:
 

I think I should try this technique again and either make a video or take more photos along the way!  How about you?

Thanks for visiting!

- Michelle

Wild About You

Hi!  Happy Thursday!  Today's card was fun to create -- I started with the Animal Expedition Designer Series Paper (part of this month's buy 3 get 1 free special from now until July 31, 2018).  I cut out some of the adorable animals I wanted to add to my card.  Then, for a background, I decided to use some of the Delightfully Detailed Laser Cut Specialty Paper, which I colored with an Aqua Painter and Brusho.  Here's my card, which has a white base, topped with a layer of Shaded Spruce card stock under the Delightfully Detailed "vines":

The greeting is from the Animal Outing Stamp Set, and is framed with an image from the Swirly Frames Set.  The flower accent is from the Tropical Elements, colored yellow with a Daffodil Delight Stampin' Blends Marker.  I added a sequin from the Iridescent Sequin Assortment in the center, along with a pearl from the Share What You Love Artisan Pearls:

What do you think?  Hope you like it.  You can click here to visit my online store and check out Animal Expedition and the other designer papers that are part of this month's special.

Thanks for visiting!

- Michelle

Paper Pumpkin - You Are My Anchor Kit

Hello!  Apologies for the silence the past week or so . . . we were off on a road trip to Seattle and back with some fun stops on the way, and though I had some posts planned, I didn't get a chance to pop in and get them written and published!  So, will try to catch up now!  

Speaking of catching up, one of my summer projects has been getting caught up on creating my Paper Pumpkin kits!  I recently finished the April kit ("You Are My Anchor"), and enjoyed putting together the note cards and boxes from that!  I decided to do this one just as designed, though there are so many cute alternate ideas I've been saving for this kit on Pinterest (you can see my board for those here)!  

Isabella decided to help me as I was taking photos of the kit, too -- perhaps stalking my leftover linen thread?  Anyway, here are the photos:

July kits are on their way -- I'm still waiting on mine -- hopefully will magically appear in my mailbox tomorrow!  If you haven't subscribed yet, you'll want to be sure to sign up before August 10th and take advantage of the Blooming Summer Savings of 50% off your August kit:

Please contact me or click here to visit my Paper Pumpkin page and learn more!

Thanks for visiting!

- Michelle

Tropical Chic Technique

Hello!   Yesterday, I showed you a card with the Tropical Chic stamp set and mentioned I'd have more for you soon about the technique I used on the flowers and leaves.  Well, that technique was inspired by Steffi Helmschrott -- I found this card by her on Pinterest and from a bit of research, was able to discover a post by Steffi with her card here on Instagram and more information and photos of it here on Facebook.  Here's my attempt to recreate that card for a sample on my display boards for the New Catalog Open House:

For my card base, I used Gray Granite -- not sure if that is the same color as in Steffi's -- hers looks more purple? -- topped with a layer of Basic Black and a layer of Whisper White, which I embossed using the Garden Scene Framelits and the new Embossing Mats.  Flowers were inked up in Flirty Flamingo, then I used a Sponge Dauber to add Melon Mambo ink to the center.  Following Steffi's instructions, I used an Aqua Painter to tap fine drops of water onto the ink before stamping.  I did the same for the leaves, inking the stamp up completely in Granny Apple Green, before applying some Shaded Spruce with a Sponge Dauber, then flicking on some water with the Aqua Painter and stamping.  Really loving this technique (in case you hadn't noticed ;) ).

In addition to the card from yesterday's post, I was inspired to create another card.  I thought it would be fun to have groups of even more vibrantly colored flowers framed with squares stamped with the new Swirly Frames Stamp Set.  Here's the palette I picked for it (tried to follow Patty Bennett's advice to photograph the ink pads to help remember, but discovered that good advice works even better if you have all new ink pads or all the ink pads turned so you can read the color name!  Live and learn!!!):

The top two colors are Mango Melody and Poppy Parade, followed by Gorgeous Grape and Melon Mambo, and again Shaded Spruce and Granny Apple Green for leaves. 

Here's a photo of the card in progress.  I decided to use the dies from the Tropical Chic Bundle to emboss some leaves on a Shaded Spruce layer, but first had embossed that layer with the Subtle Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder:

Here's the finished card:

The greeting is embossed with White Stampin' Emboss Powder on Basic Black card stock and fussy cut.  To coordinate with that, I tied some of the new sparkly Black 1/8" Cord around the layers.

Hope you'll give this technique a try! 

Thanks for visiting!

- Michelle

A Bit of Lovely Lipstick, Whisper White and Blueberry Bushel!

A day late, but wanted to post some Lovely Lipstick (red), white and Blueberry Bushel (blue) cards to celebrate Independence Day yesterday!  

This card was fun to create with the Dandelion Wishes stamp set, stamped tone-on-tone in the background and heat embossed in white on watercolor paper colored with Brusho:

The firework/flower centers are Clear-Faceted Gems.  The lace-like strip of Whisper White was die cut with the Delicate Lace Edgelits Dies.

You might remember this card I designed as a make and take for my New Catalog Party last Sunday:

 With some leftover kits, I created these cards:

Here, I used the Bokeh Dots stamped in Blueberry Bushel as a background for Dandelion Wishes stamped in Lovely Lipstick, resembling fireworks, and a sentiment from the same set stamped in Blueberry Bushel.

Then, I decided to switch things up a bit for the next cards, substituting in a background cut from the Delightfully Detailed Laser Cut Specialty Paper, flowers and leaves created with the Tropical Chic Clear Mount Bundle, and a greeting from the Varied Vases stamp set on a die cut from the Stitched Labels Framelits:

Stay tuned for more info on how I created the dappled, multi-tone look on the flowers and leaves!

Thanks for visiting my blog!

- Michelle

Hooray for the June Paper Pumpkin Kit!

The June 2018 Paper Pumpkin Kit, "Broadway Star," is fabulous!  I had so much fun creating the kit as designed, and then coming up with alternatives!  Here are the cards I created following the directions in the kit:

And, here are my alternative designs (for some of these, I ended up mixing in some recently retired designer papers I had on hand that coordinated beautifully from the Picture Perfect Party pack and the Petal Passion pack . . . however, this kit is also designed to coordinate perfectly with the new Broadway Bound Specialty Designer Series Paper and Broadway Birthday Photopolymer Bundle):

And, here are all my cards together in the Paper Pumpkin box!

If you'd like to join in on the Paper Pumpkin fun, be sure to click here to learn more or sign up!   There have also been some sneak peeks of the July kits posted on the Paper Pumpkin Facebook page -- be sure to sign up before July 10th if you'd like this month's kit!  Subscribers also can purchase past kits -- you can see what's currently available here (as of the time I am posting this, there are still refills available for this Broadway Star kit!  Be sure to order yours online or contact me to order before the kits are are gone!)

Thanks for visiting!

- Michelle