It's all about balance

I haven't quite found it yet, but I'm working on it. I can still fit in knitting and paper crafting without too much difficulty (of course!)...now if I could just figure out a way to hire a maid to do the laundry/feed the family, I'd be in business! :)

Here's my latest accomplishments:

In the knitting world, this is what's known as a MKAL (Mystery Knit A Long). When this is done, it's going to be a shawl. I've knit up to clue #4 which we just got from the designer. Next Monday, we'll get clue #5 and the following Monday will be clue #6 and it will be DONE! The shawl is called Leaf Evolution and you can just make out the the leaves at the bottom and see them growing towards the top. Pretty cool, eh? The portion at the top of the picture is actually going to be toward the bottom of the shawl when I'm wearing it, so it'll look like falling leaves. I love it!

Are you coming to class this coming Saturday, June 1st? It's a class all about 3-D Delights and above is some of the Card Candy we'll be creating that will go on the cards in the Desktop Caddy we'll be making! We're going to have a GREAT time!

Did you notice the stamp set I used? It's Tea Shoppe...and it's retiring this year! This is one set I WON'T be selling at my open house, so if you'd like it better order it soon! I'm offering free shipping between now and May 30th, so contact me (click email me on the top left) and I'll order it for you!

Happy Stampin'!

Just for You for the Paper Craft Crew

Happy Wednesday! Today's card for the Paper Craft Crew features Midnight Muse and one of my favourite paper from the Catalogue this year, Comfort Cafe. The colours and the patterns are SO pretty!

I started off with the Midnight Muse base and added a layer of Very Vanilla. From there, I punched a piece of the Midnight Muse DSP with my scallop punch and added it to the front. I flagged two pieces of Designer Series Paper and then stamped one with Cajun Craze using the "Just for You" sentiment from Tea Shoppe.

The little paper flags were added to the card front and then I adhered the fussy-cut teacup using Stampin' Dimensionals.

Here's the sketch on which the card was based:

You can check out what the rest of the crew did HERE.

What do you think?

STAMPS: Tea Shoppe
INK: Midnight Muse, Cajun Craze
PAPERS: Very Vanilla and Midnight Muse Cardstock; Comfort Cafe DSP
ACCESSORIES: Punches, Stampin' Dimensionals

Happy Stampin!

Steppin' it up with ATC's for the Creative Crew

I thought I was all kinds of clever when I created the tags in this post...till I read the directions for the tags again. *sigh* Getting ahead of myself is a particular specialty of mine - LOL!

Turns out the TAG/ATC challenge was tied into the Catalogue focus which was to use the Occasions stamps on pages 32-57. Yeah...got a little excited there!

FORTUNATELY, it turned out that the tags were OK because the Holiday Focus could be created in ANY format (tag, card, scrapbook page, home decor), so...PHEW!!

Here's a picture of both my adorable (if I do say so myself!) Tea Shoppe ATC cards. The one on the right is the simple version, stamped on Whisper White. The one of the left is my stepped up version. 

To step it up, I stamped the flower image a second time, cut it out and adhered it to the card front using Stampin' Dimensionals (cut into teeny pieces!). I coloured in the flower using the blender pen and ink and added a pearl.

On the bottom cup, I added NINE tiny pearls.

Here's a close up of the flower in the top cup. I used the ink from the stamped image and dragged it around with my blender pen to add colour to the flowers. I coloured the stems/leaf with Always Artichoke Ink and the blender pen.

What do you think?

STAMPS: Tea Shoppe
INK: Pool Party, Wisteria Wonder, Island Indigo, Always Artichoke
PAPERS: Whisper White, Wisteria Wonder and Island Indigo Cardstock
ACCESSORIES: Blender Pen, Basic Pearls, Stampin' Dimensionals


Wishing you a wonderfully blessed day filled with stamping and happy times!

Six Degrees of Separation and a card for the Crew!

So, I don't know if this even COUNTS as Six Degrees of Separation, but I had to figure out SOME way to link to someone else's blog and this is how I decided to do it. It sounded good in my head, so bear with me. :)

A few years ago, I started typing names into Facebook. Names of friends from high school, names of friends from the summer camp I attended up until 1989, names of friends from when I was a cheerleader...you get the idea.

Anyway, one friend I typed in was someone with whom I attended summer camp and we reconnected. It's fun to see "where they are now". About a month ago, this friend posted on Facebook that he had a Twitter account and that those who were so inclined could follow him. So I did...and he followed back.

Fast forward to this past weekend, and I get a notification that I have a new follower on Twitter - YAY!! My new follower is a stamper too!!! See? That counts at Six Degrees, right?? A connection!! (Cait is Bruce's wife - Bruce is the friend from Summer Camp)  So, I checked out her blog! It's just new, but you should check it out too! Cait has some fun ideas and LOVES playing with paper! She makes what she calls "Big Hair Girls" and you'll be AMAZED at the punch she uses to do it!

So, now that I've shared my excitement...let's get on with today's card for the Paper Craft Crew! It also qualifies for this week's Paper Players Challenge to use cups, so...YAY!! Check it out:

I started off with the teacup from the set and stamped it in Primrose Petals. I then cut it out (yep!) and distressed the edges with scissors. Next step was to decide what I wanted for a background.

I decided on the Apothecary Accents Framelits and cut out the largest one from Very Vanilla. I then grabbed the matching Paper Piercing Template from the Essentials pack and pierced all the way around the frame. I wanted a little bit more and added a layer of Crumb Cake behind the Framelit. This layer was hand cut (yes, again).

I adhered the Framelit layers to the card front layer and tied the ribbon around the those.

Then I cut out the largest of the doilies from the large Delicate Doilies Sizzlit and adhered it to the Framelit. Then...I added the stamped teacup to the front and added a few pearls. You can see them a bit better in the picture above than in the full card picture.

The sentiment was stamped in Crumb Cake on Very Vanilla and punched out with the Tag Punch. It was tied around the ribbon with Linen Thread and then adhered using a Stampin' Dimensional.

Last but not least:

I finished the inside.

You can play along too! Here's the sketch:

What do you think?

STAMPS: Tea Shoppe, Tiny Tags
INK: Raspberry Ripple, Crumb Cake
PAPERS: Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake and Raspberry Ripple Cardstock, Raspberry Ripple DSP
ACCESSORIES:  Big Shot, Framelits, Sizzlits, Basic Pearls, Punch, Ribbon, Linen Thread, Stampin' Dimensionals

Happy Stampin'!

Going Retro with Tea Shoppe

I was feeling rather uncreative today, so I just sat around surfing the net for ideas. Not much came to me...till I stumbled across Retro Sketches again!

I used their sketch:

To create this:

I love Tea Shoppe and sure hope it carries over into the new Catalogue! And speaking of which...the current Idea Book and Catalogue will be retiring on May 31st. The retiring stamp list will be available in just FOUR short days!

Wanna see some close ups? Here you go:

It's a little blurry, but you can see I used Stampin' Dimensionals. If you've been following my blog for a while, you know that very few of my cards go without Stampin' Dimensionals. I just LOVE them!

I stamped the inside of the card with the small flower image. We'll be using this set at class this weekend!

And here's a group shot. I made eight cards since I had some pre-cut Riding Hood Red cardstock. The cards are 3 3/4" square. I'm going to make up some envies using the Simply Scored Diagonal plate and share them with my class attendees on Saturday.

What do you think?

STAMPS: Tea Shoppe
INK: Riding Hood Red
PAPERS: Whisper White and Riding Hood Red Cardstock; Riding Hood Red DSP
ACCESSORIES: Punch, Ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals

Happy Stampin'!

Feelin' Blue with Pals Paper Arts

So...you know how sometimes you just go surfing around the blogosphere and end up somewhere TOTALLY awesome, but then don't remember HOW you got there? A little click here...a little link there...you know what I mean...

I think I started off on Pinterest and came across an AWESOME card that I just KNEW was Ann Schach's and then wondered how the heck I had missed it...you know since I stalk visit her blog everyday. Well, I went to comment on it and in my comment let Ann know that I'd be CASEing it and using it in my "Just the Girls" class next month. Of course, to use it in class, I'll probably have to cut out the handles first, but since I just LOVE all that fussy cutting, it's not a problem.

Here's my card, which I actually DID "selectively edit" instead of just copying the whole thing outright - go me! LOL!

The things I edited: I didn't run the stamped panel background through the Big Shot...mostly because my Big Shot is across the room and I was too comfy to get up. Yeah...not even kidding - LOL! I angled my sentiment...mostly because I already had a pearl in the tiny flower above it and I didn't want to have to take it off. Lastly, I added a pearl to the little seam binding rosette.

What do you think?

STAMPS: Tea Shoppe

INK: Not Quite Navy (stamping); Always Artichoke (colouring with blender pen)

PAPERS: Very Vanilla, Baja Breeze and Not Quite Navy Cardstock; Subtles and Regals DSP; Twitterpated DSP

ACCESSORIES: Seam Binding, Ribbon, Basic Pearls, Square Punch, Stampin' Dimensionals, Glue Dots

Happy Stampin'!

Tea Shoppe for the Stampin' Queens!

Hmmm...ok. So, you know how I said LAST WEEK that my dear friend Cristena probably hadn't had enough caffeine when designing the sketches? And how after last week's sketch, they shouldn't be TOO difficult? Yeah...I think I lied - LOL!

This week's sketch gave me a bit of trouble too:

See what I mean? Or maybe not? Maybe it's just me?

Anyway...in order to NOT make myself totally crazy, I went with a monochromatic look, using Whisper White, Wisteria Wonder and Concord Crush. I'm going to be sad to see Concord Crush go...though if you'd asked me that when it first came out, I would have told you a different story! It goes so well with Wisteria Wonder!

So...here's my take on the sketch:

I started off with a base of Wisteria Wonder and added a layer of Flirtatious Designer Series Paper. My panels were created in the same manner.

I stamped my image from Tea Shoppe in Wisteria Wonder on Whisper White and then matted it on another piece of Wisteria Wonder. The Concord Crush ribbon underneath just adds the right touch of "punch". My sentiment, stamped in Concord Crush, is adhered to the card using Stampin' Dimensionals.

What do you think?

STAMPS: Tea Shoppe
INK: Wisteria Wonder and Concord Crush
PAPERS: Whisper White and Wisteria Wonder Cardstock; Flirtatious DSP
ACCESSORIES: Ribbon, Punch, Stampin' Dimensionals

Happy Stampin'!